Saturday's Internet Edition, July 31, 2010.
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| The Clark Hotel Historical Museum's awesome bar/back bar will amaze visitors. |
- The Culberson County Historical Museum Association’s Clark Hotel Historical Musem is truly a repository of our local history.
The Hotel, listed in the National Registry of Historic Sites, has a story to tell about Van Horn and Culberson County history from the late 1800’s. Van Horn was founded in 1880 and Culberson County was separated from El Paso County in 1911.
The Clark Hotel served as Culberson County’s very first courthouse, while the original courthouse was being constructed. In fact, the Clark Hotel served as the County Courthouse for nearly four years. And, it is the only remaining original courthouse since county commissioners had the old courthouse demolished in the mid-1960s.
What is now called the “Opera Room” was back then the district/county courtroom. And other county offices were housed throughout the Hotel. Because of a lack of funds, the room is just used for storage today.
When you enter the Clark Hotel Historical Museum, you are immediately taken aback by the awesome presence of the Museum’s historical bar and back bar.
You can almost imagine some of the tales told by local patrons during those early years as they sipped on beer and whiskey.
A walk into the parlor with the registration books spread open causes your eyes to drift across the pages to see who might have stayed in the Hotel back in the early days. And, you can sit in the parlor and visualize social gatherings that happened there.
The kitchen, with its wood burning stove, will bring back memories of the meals served the old fashioned way. No microwaves or TV dinners back then.
Other rooms downstairs feature Van Horn’s first automobile, a 1913 Model T dubbed ‘Eleanor,’ owned by the Booth family and on loan to the Museum.
Van Horn’s early railroad days and its mining history are also depicted in these rooms.
And, upstairs you get a feel for how early visitors to Van Horn spent the night in the Hotel’s spacious accomodations. Many of the rooms upstairs are now dedicated to area families dating back to the late 1800’s.
You can see the Bean Family room, the Capehart Family room, the Foley Family room, the Evans-Powell Family room, the Geeslin Family room, the Wylie Family room and so many more.
And you can talk with Museum Curator Robert Stuckey who will gladly fill you in on many more families from Van Horn and Culberson County. And, you can ask him about the politics of early Culberson County and who shot who to achieve or maintain some semblence of power back in the early days.
You can spend as much time as you’ve got at the Clark Hotel Historical Museum. It offers you a history lesson that you can get no where else.
After you’ve visited the Museum a couple of times, you’ll come away with a wonderful feeling that this Museum must remain, and more importantly, it must get better.
But in order to get better, it must have operating funds. This wonderful asset to our community is operating ‘bare bones’ right now because it does not have a steady source of revenue.
Sure folks that stop by and visit drop some coins in a hat now and then, but it takes a whole lot more than that to keep it running and getting better.
This wonderful story of our unique history can and will get better and better with the establishment of a steady revenue source. The Museum gets money from the Van Horn Motel Tax but that is not near enough to keep up the repairs, insurance, daily utility costs, and give it anything to improve upon the exhibits that are there or to obtain new ones.
What this wonderful old facility needs is for folks who love our history as much as we do, to be generous to the Museum with a lasting tribute to our history. If you’re one who might just consider this avenue to keep this part of history alive, I’d encourage you to contact Robert Stuckey who’ll put you in touch with one of our directors to work out the details.
But, before you do that, come by the Museum and immerse yourself in our history. You won’t regret it!
Beth Nobles works to promote Van Horn
Beth Nobles, executive director of the Texas Mountain Trail, was the guset at the Van Horn Rotary meeting Tuesday.
She was eager to tell Rotarians just what she does for Van Horn and the Texas Mountain Trail region, which encompasses the westernmost six counties in the state.
Nobles told folks that the Texas Mountain Trail is a part of the Texas Historical Commission’s Heritage Trails Program which promotes histroical, cultural, and nature tourism in the region as well as working with communities to support their tourism assets and improve visitor experiences.
Nobles said that one of her big projects right now is helping to develop a “Wildlife/Birding Map of Far West Texas.” She said that she is working with the Texas Parks and Wildilfe Department and the Texas Pecos Trail to finalize the state’s suite of these maps.
She noted that Van Horn’s Mountian View Golf Course is slated to be included, but that she needs more sites from around Van Horn. Additionally, she noted that she needs help identifying various species of birds in the Van Horn area.
Another area that is picking up interest for her is making our region one that is known as “Cycle-Friendly.” She recounted a recent group that had cycled from Van Horn’s Hotel El Capitan and Guadalupe Mountains National Park’s El Capitan Peak.
She went on to say that this area is ideal for this type of sport and it is gaining momentum as each rider blogs about the ride on the internet.
Additionally, Nobles is involved in numerous regional tourism marketing projects through www.texasmountaintrail.com, her blog, on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.
And, Nobles went on, that she finds time to handle speaking engagements and service on various boards throughout the Texas Mountain Trail region.
All this to promote Van Horn and our region around, not just this country, but around the world.
If you’d like to learn more about the Texas Mountain Trail and what you can do to assist, contact Beth Nobles at (432) 284-0002.
'Economic Development Roundtable' set for next Tuesday
As part of an ongoing effort to enhance economic growth in rural Texas, Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples announced today that the Texas Department of Agriculture is hosting a series of roundtable meetings designed to bring TDA staff and rural business leaders together to exchange ideas and share success stories. The latest series of meetings targets cities in west Texas.
“Rural Texas offers a wealth of resources, talent and opportunities for economic growth,” Commissioner Staples said. “Growing successful businesses in rural Texas ultimately benefits the entire Lone Star State. By partnering together, we will be able to identify areas of need and opportunity, and continue to showcase rural Texas as a land of vast economic potential.”
“Partners for Progress” meetings are scheduled for the following west Texas cities:
March 30: Vinton/Anthony, West Valley Fire Station, 8 - 9:30 a.m.; Dell City/Sierra Blanca, Dell Telephone Cooperative, Noon - 1:30 p.m.; Van Horn, Hotel El Capitan, 4 - 5:30 p.m.
“Partners for Progress” - Rural Business Development Roundtable Discussions is a partner-ship of the Governors Office of Economic Development; USDA Rural Development; United States Small Business Administration; University of Texas San Antonio Small Business Development Center; and the Texas Department of Agriculture Rural Economic Development Division. For additional information, please contact TDA Rural Economic Development Representative Jack Stallings at (915) 859-3942 or jack.stallings@TexasAgriculture.gov.
Morales drops out of mayors race
The Van Horn Advocate learned last Thursday that Robert Morales had contacted City Hall and withdrew his name as a candidate for Van Horn mayor.
No reason was given, however, the Advocate has learned that Morales is deeply involved in the process of obtaining a real estate license and that may have had something to do with his decision.
At any rate, the mayors race, in the May 8th City Officer election now looks like this: Incumbent mayor Ben Flanagan is seeking re-election and he is being challenged by former mayor Okey D. Lucas and former city alderman Dennis McBride.