July 25, 2008
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MARATHON
– The Fourth Annual “Living with Nature” will be next week here with speakers
from around the country addressing sustainable living and green building
techniques. The
festival kicks-off at Eve’s Garden Organic Bed & Breakfast and Ecology
Resource Center in Marathon with a cocktail reception starting at 6 p.m.
Friday night, Aug. 1. Presentations
will be on Saturday at the Community Building and the Parish Hall of St. Mary’s
Catholic Church. Living
with Nature President Bennett Jones said activities will be focused on the
Community Building and people should check in there and be directed to the
activity they are interested in. David C. Lynch will focus
on the use of natural gas as a vehicle fuel source. Cummins
Westport, Inc., a joint venture between Cummins Inc. and Westport Innovations
Inc., delivers high-performance alternative fuel engines for the global
market. Dr.
Richard Erdlac, Director of Energy Technologies Research and
Commercialization for Energy America Inc., will speak on Geothermal Energy
for home heating and cooling and community energy generation. Kenneth
L. Starcher, director of the Alternative Energy Institute, will speak on wind energy for the home and community. William Wren, special assistant to the
superintendent of the University of Texas at Austin McDonald Observatory. Wren
will speak about “Outdoor Lighting Control.” By KLEMIE BRYTE Special to the News Leader I
keep a little journal that I write to my one-year-old niece Ariahna in
Tennessee, like I’m talking to her. It
helps me feel like she’s here rather than there. This is the journal entry
for the Fourth of July. It seemed like an amazing thing that happened, so I
thought I’d pass it on to the community: I
got a phone call saying that one of the three miniature burros I sometimes
take care of was loose. The owner, D.J. Hensley, was in another town that
morning. When
the call came in, I was eating my cereal. I stopped that, changed from my
nightgown to jeans, got Tom, and we drove over to the pens, three blocks
away, and parked by the feed barrels that are right by the gate. I
saw the burro a half block away. I thought parking at the feed barrels would
draw the burro back like it always does because that always means food time.
This time, it didn’t work. Besides
Tom and me, Phoebe Campbell and Coy Gonzalez were there. Even
my approaching her with molasses-covered oats, her favorite, could not
interest the not-yet-full-grown Curious into leaving that new juicy green
grass she was grazing. All
she did when any of us approached, even with carrots that Coy brought out and
distributed to all of us, was run away. Curious’
mother, Parade, and her cousin, Valentino, were still in the pen. I figured
Curious wouldn’t run from them and I knew she wasn’t going to stop grazing
that delicious grass. After
all, she’s a herd animal and a grazer. So I wasn’t too worried about her
going too far. Then
Tom went for her halter. None of us had ever put a halter on an equine. I
knew we’d never get close enough to even try. Then
Coy had an idea. She called into the house for her seven-year-old
granddaughter Jaylen Franklin. Jaylen
lives in Houston but is spending the summer with her grandparents, Coy and
Ruben Gonzalez. Living
across the street from the burros, Jaylen daily feeds them apples and
carrots. Coy
gave Jaylen a carrot to try to lure Curious the half-block walk to the open
gate. It
was working. As Jaylen walked backwards to the gate, holding the carrot out
to Curious, the burro started to follow her and the carrot. Jaylen
let her take bites but kept walking. As Jaylen neared the gate, Valentino
began ambling toward the open gate. All
this time, Tom and I and Coy and Phoebe are holding our breaths, just
helplessly watching this drama like it was a movie. Finally,
all three burros were clustered at the open gate. Just then, Valentino ate
the rest of the carrot. Curious
was still outside the gate and so was Jaylen. I
walked over and carefully handed Jaylen the carrot from my back pocket. She
was so cool and collected, like she’d been practicing this for years. She
continued feeding and luring Curious into the pen. At
this point, I knew Valentino wasn’t going to step out of the gate because by
now Jaylen and the carrot were inside the pen. I
stepped over and closed the gate and slid the latch. Jaylen
was the hero. She was the only one that Curious trusted, even though we all
had carrots. Later,
I asked Jaylen what advice she’d give to someone trying to catch a burro. “If
you can’t do it, it’s hard,” she said. “But if you know the burro ―
like if you you’ve been feeding it, like you know it ― it will listen
to you and you can probably catch it. “It was fun though. I really love them,”
she said. with Nature’ sought MARATHON – The “Friends of the Marathon Library” is seeking volunteers
to staff the Friends of the Alpine Public Library’s book-sale table at the
Living With Nature IV Festival next week. The affair, also known as the Sustainability Festival, will be
Saturday, Aug. 2, here and Friends are asking for help between the hours of
10 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Saturday. “The book stock is queued up and all logistics lined out,”
Friends President Arlene Griffis said. “All we need is your smile and
enthusiasm for the library and lifetime learning. “Besides meeting like-minded people who come by the table,
you’ll get free admission to that Saturday’s events -- a $10 value. If
a sustainability lifestyle interests you, you won’t want to miss this
one.” As an added incentive to support the event, the director of this
year’s event Bennett Jones has pledged all net proceeds to the library’s
Capital Campaign. For more information on this event, see the Living website at http://www.livingwithnature.net/index.html If interested in helping with the table, call Ken Durham
at 364-2642. By ARLENE GRIFFIS Library Friend This
week marks the fifth in a series featuring the authors who will appear at the
Alpine Rotary Club’s Way Out West Texas Book Festival, which is a benefit for
the Alpine Public Library and its Marathon branch. Although
we are in far West Texas and gas is over $4 a gallon, we have been so
fortunate in obtaining really top-quality individuals to appear on the
program of this inaugural festival, which we hope to make an annual event. The
honorary chair of the event is none other than Texas musician, singer, songwriter,
author, former gubernatorial candidate and animal rights activist Kinky
Friedman, who will mix and mingle with the crowd at the Friday night barbecue
at Kokernot Lodge. During
the day on Saturday, Kinky will be at the Espino Center greeting fans and
selling and signing books, including his newest, “What Would Kinky Do? : How
to Unscrew a Screwed-Up World.” Those
who purchase tickets to the Saturday night gala dinner are in for a wild and
fun evening as Kinky entertains the audience with his music and his
“speechifying.” Also
appearing at the festival on Saturday will be Alpine’s own Joaquin Jackson,
who will be on a panel featuring authors of books on Texas Rangers. Joaquin
got the information for his two books on the subject first-hand, drawing on
his experiences from a career spanning from 1966 to 1993. The
first book, “One Ranger,” tells of how Jackson became a ranger as well as
introducing some of the men he worked with, while describing some of the
adventures they had as lawmen serving all over the state. “One
Ranger” was nominated for a Western Writers of America Spur Award and was
also optioned as a major motion picture. Those
readers who finished the first book and still clamored for more true Ranger
tales were rewarded this year with the publication of “One Ranger Returns,” Both
of Jackson’s books, which were published by the University of Texas Press,
will be on sale at the festival and the author will be available to sign both
volumes as well. Another
well-known Texas celebrity who we are fortunate to have coming to the
festival is Mike Cox, who retired in the fall
of 2007 as Communication Manager for the Texas Department of Transportation,
where he handled media and internal relations on highways and other
transportation issues. Prior
to that, he spent more than 15 years with the Texas Department of Public
Safety as chief of media relations and public information officer. In
between, he was director of member services for the Texas Press Association. Cox,
whom locals may remember as the “voice” who kept citizens updated on the
neo-Republic of Texas standoff at Fort Davis several years ago,
is the author of 13 non-fiction books including a study of
Texas disasters, three books on the Texas Rangers, one collection of
historical stories, one true crime story, a biography, a memoir and three
local histories, as well as numerous magazine articles, essays and
introductions for other books. He
is a syndicated newspaper columnist, an award-winning reporter and is also an
accomplished and experienced speaker on such topics as Texas Rangers,
free-lance writing, leadership and media relations. He
has been an elected member of the Texas Institute of Letters since 1993. Mike’s
latest work, “The Texas Rangers: Wearing the Cinco Peso, 1821-1900,” is the
first of a two-volume comprehensive history of the Rangers, which has just
been published by Forge Books in New York. The
Texas Rangers panel will also feature Sharon Spinks, who was featured two
weeks ago in the column on women authors appearing at the festival. She
will speak about her
recent book, “Law on the Last Frontier: Texas Ranger Arthur Hill,” based upon the real-life experiences of
her husband’s grandfather whose career as a Ranger spanned the years from
1947 to 1974. For information about these and other authors appearing at
Alpine Rotary’s Way Out West Book Festival, please visit www.wowtxbookfestival.com.
All
author sessions will be on Saturday, Aug. 9, at the Sul Ross State University
Espino Conference Center and are free to the public. A
copy of the complete program is posted on the site. Also available on the
website is ticket information for the Friday night chuck wagon barbecue
dinner at Kokernot Lodge with music by Mike Blakely, as well as for the
Saturday night gala dinner at the Espino Center featuring Kinky Friedman
singing and telling stories in his own unique style. Happy
Reading. Arlene
Griffis is president of Friends of the Marathon Public Library, which is a
branch of Alpine Public Library. She is also a member of the Rotary Club of
Alpine. |
The
green products and services trade show will be set up at St Mary’s Church
Parish Hall across from Eve’s Garden. Jones
said vendors will offer everything from do-it-yourself solar oven kits to
wind turbines and rain water harvesting devices. Live
music, food and games for children will be offered throughout the day. Sunday
will be dedicated to touring the region with stops planned at a local buffalo
ranch and the Big Bend National Park. All
proceeds from the festival will benefit construction of the new Brewster
County Library in Alpine. MARATHON
– Mattie V. Stuessy opened the door of the old Chambers Hotel here. “I
knew it was somebody I didn’t know,” she said. “Come on in. I’m in the back
watching tennis.” She
walked with two canes but got around well. We slipped through the hallway and
then flopped down in front of the TV. A Czech was serving to a Frenchman. “What
do you want?” Mattie V. asked. Rain
began to patter on the tin roof. “Enough
to keep the dust down,” Mattie V. said. It
got louder. Mattie
V. was born in the house some 78 years ago. It was originally built in 1891
from adobe brick but later – Mattie V. thinks about 1915 – it was wood-sided.
Her
grandmother, Mattie Salida Miles Chambers, bought the hotel in 1906. She ran
it together with her son Pless Chambers until her death in 1926. The
hotel offered 13 rooms. A ten-foot dinner bell in the front yard gonged
everyday at noon to let the guests know it was time to eat. “We
had a colored cook back then,” she said. “Ben Paine - called himself ‘Nigger
Ben.’ He’d say, ‘Hello, I’m Nigger Ben,” Mattie V. said. Ben
Paine is buried in the Marathon Cemetery. A
plaque from the days of boarding hangs on Mattie V.’s living room wall. It
states, “No spitting on the floors and no alcohol or gambling allowed in the
rooms.” “If
they wanted whiskey, they’d go next door. There was a saloon there, some
white man’s name but I don’t remember it,” Mattie V. said. “It’s torn down
now. There was another saloon where the Ritchie Building is today. And then
another across the street from the Baptist preacher’s house.” The
plaque also states that, “Guests without baggage will invariable pay in
advance.” “There
were a lot of characters coming in,” Mattie V. said. “But the one Daddy told
me about the most was Mr. [Alfred] Gage. He’d come in on the railroad from
San Antonio to check on his ranches. “Him
and [Guy] Combs owned everything around ‘cept for Captain [Albion] Shepherd
who owned the Iron Mountain,” she said. “He come in one day wanting a room.
And we was booked up. So Gage said to Dad, ‘I want you to hold me a room when
I’m here,’ and Dad said, ‘You gonna pay for it year-around?’ and Gage said,
‘No, just when I’m here.’ Dad told him no and Gage said, ‘Well, I’ll just
build my own hotel,’ and that’s how it all got started. “My
dad leased out our hotel a couple of times but it never worked and he kept
ending up with it,” Mattie V. said. “Finally about 1930, my mother said ‘no
more.’ Dad did a little cowboying before he became a section foreman for the
railroad. “We’d
live in Haymond during the summer and move back to Marathon for the school
year,” Mattie V. said. Haymond
was the old watering station for the railroad about 16 miles east of
Marathon. Mattie
V. was 16 at the time the Peña Blanca Springs Meteorite landed in a tank at
the Gage Ranch on August 2, 1946. “I
heard the sound.” Mattie V. said. “I thought daddy was unloading ties.” She
also knows the burial sites for some of the Chinese railroad laborers that
died during construction of the tracks in the 19th century. But she’s not
telling where. “How
come you reporters always want to know that?” she asked. Mattie
and her husband, Lloyd Stuessy, moved to the Iron Mountain Ranch in 1964. He
was the ranch manager for a string of owners including the Blakemores, former
Governor Dolph Briscoe, the Donnells and the present owner Brad Kelly, until
Stuessy died about ten years ago. “Mr.
Kelly allowed me to continue to live out there and I enjoy it so much. He’s a
generous man,” she said. “I’ve had a hard life, but a good one too.” Mattie
V. is a board member of the Marathon Museum. She’s
keen about the history of the area and knows a lot but still wishes she had
asked her father and brother James a little more before they passed. I
asked her why they called “Fussy Flat” Fussy Flat. “Often
wondered that myself,” Mattie V. said. “That’s one of the questions I’ll ask
my brother when I see ’em [again].” The
rain stopped. “Well
I guess you got a few stories. Don’t write too much about it,” she said. MARATHON
– Eula Mae Colmenero will enter her eighth decade of life tomorrow. She
was born Eula Mae Adams in Junction on July 26, 1928, but moved to Marathon
when she was about two years old. She
was raised in the tiny little town where she graduated a Mustang in 1949. Upon
marrying Pete Colmenero, she moved to Sierra Blanca where he was deputy
sheriff. She
and Pete had two girls, Mildred Ann Potter and Kathy Rainey. She
returned home to Marathon in 1991, where she worked at the Marathon Public
Library for five years before retiring last year. Over
the years, Colmenero stayed busy waiting tables. She now helps out part time
at the Courtyard Café at the Marathon Motel, doing “whatever needs done.” IRAAN
– A murder suspect who led authorities on a high-speed chase over more than
24 hours through three counties was captured late Wednesday near here. Authorities
from Crane, Upton and Pecos Counties along with the US Marshall Service,
Border Patrol, Texas Prison System, Texas Department of Public Safety, Texas
Rangers and a tracker dog from San Antonio took part in the chase. Pecos
County Sheriff Cliff Harris said Gillie Thomas Thurby, 42, of Denver, who had
been in Crane for about two weeks, was arrested near the intersection of US
Highway 190 and Texas 305 west of here. Crane
County Deputy Sgt. Chris Villegas said Thurby was wanted for an aggravated
assault that turned into capital murder in the stabbing death Tuesday of
Jorge Silva in Crane. Harris
said the suspect stole Silva’s vehicle and that helped authorities track him
down. Thurby
was returned to Crane to stand trial. By MARK GLOVER Marathon News Leader SHAFTER
– With silver prices approaching $20 a troy ounce, a second boom may be in
the making for this former mining town turned ghost town between Marfa and
Presidio. Aurcana,
a publicly-traded “junior” company based in Vancouver, BC, expects to
finalize acquisition this week of the Shafter Silver Mine from another
Canadian company Silver Standard Resources Inc. “The
company has secured all funding necessary to take the high-grade Shafter
silver mine acquisition through to production without further [stock] dilution,”
Aurcana President Ken Booth said. Aurcana
recently received a $25 million line of credit to secure the purchase. It
plans to commence Shafter mining operations in 2009. At
press time, the price of silver was $18.73 an ounce, a jump of 243 percent
since 2001. Booth
believes he can break even at $8 an ounce. Jobs
will be created and some local Shafter residents are excited about the
prospects. “If
they hire me, I’m good with it,” Shafter resident Marion Hughes said. “We
don’t know for sure but under full production we expect 80 to 100 jobs to
open up,” Booth said. “We will employ from the local area.” “I’ll
believe it when I see it,” Presidio City Manager Cindy Clarke said. “That
mine has changed hands a lot in the past 16 years. I’d love to see it open
and the jobs but people can’t wait around.” Not
only does Aurcana intend to extract ore from the 1,050-foot-deep “East”
shaft, but they also plan to process it and produce silver “dore” on site, a
98 percent pure silver product. An
ore-processing mill capable of refining 900 tons of ore per day is already at
the mine. The
dore will then be shipped to another location where the final two percent of
silica and quartz impurities will be removed to make silver bullion. Aurcana
plans to produce 3 million troy ounces of bullion per year. This
will require processing approximately 325,000 tons of ore, Booth said. The
sequence for converting ore to silver dore includes a chemical wash and
separation step where the ore is agitated in a bath of “special liquid.” Cyanide
is often used in these baths and arsenic can be a by-product. Both
chemicals are poisonous and require licensing from Texas Commission on
Environmental Quality. Booth
said most of the permits at the mine are current. Charles
Vo at the TCEQ in Austin said current permits transfer to new companies when
acquisitions are made. These
permits include air quality, disposal of hazardous waste, underground
injection disposal, waste water systems, petroleum storage and dust control. According
to the Blacksmith Institute, five of the ten most polluted places on the
planet are mining sites where heavy metal ore processing takes place. None of
the five sites is in the United States. American
Smelting and Refining Company operated a lead, zinc and copper smelter in El
Paso for approximately 100 years until it stopped processing ore in 1999. The
EPA designated the smelter as a superfund site and clean-up continues today. Results
from a 2003 City of El Paso inspection in the adjacent neighborhoods showed
high levels of lead and arsenic in children’s blood. Last
month, an Indian company led by billionaire Anil Agarwal offered $2.6 billion
to the present owners, Grupo Mexico, to take over the ASARCO site and restart
smelting operations. The
Sierra Club, Public Citizen and other environmental groups are seeking to
block the sale. The
last Shafter silver mine boom ended in 1942 and it hasn’t been commercially
mined since. In
1977, a South African company, Gold Fields Mining Company, bought the mine
from American Metals who had owned it since 1926. Gold
Fields did some testing before selling it to Rio Grande Mining Company in
1994. The
present owner as of press time, Silver Standard Resources carried out
additional exploration at the mine including a 5,100-foot core sample. They
improved the elevator system at the 1,050-foot “East” shaft and in 2003 they
also placed on site the 900-ton-a-day mill. Since
the late 1800s, approximately 15 mines in the area have operated under names
such as Chinati Mine, Perry Mine, Moctezuma Mine and Last Chance Mine and
produced a number of minerals including gold, silver, zinc, lead, copper and
uranium. Shafter
silver deposits were discovered in 1882 by John Spencer, who convinced William
R. Shafter to purchase the land where the discovery was made. Mining
expertise was brought in from San Francisco as well as the first laborers who
were fresh off the boat from Ireland after working for a short period in the
boom-gone- bust placer region of northern California. The
next set of laborers came from Mexico and they became the backbone for the
mine until its closure in 1942. Fitted
with hammer-action hand drills and chirimbuelas, a small, hand-made oil
holder with a wick and made from tin, it produced a smoky dim light that
miners used to illuminate the 12- x 15-foot “East” shaft. By
1900, the shaft had expanded to 400 feet deep with four working levels. In
1890, a smelter was brought in and placed in Cibolo Creek just downstream
from present day Shafter to process not only silver but also lead ore. At
that time mercury was used to separate the minerals from the ore. Later
cyanide was found more effective and a cyanide plant and new smelter were set
up in the creek upstream from Shafter in 1912. The
following year, hand drills were displaced by air- driven percussion drills
and, by 1930, the “East” shaft had deepened to 700 feet. According
to the Shafter Museum only three under- ground deaths were reported at the
mine from 1900 to 1942. Goats
however did not always make out so well. Shafter resident Monroe Elms,
relayed a story about locals weary of their goats drinking from the creek for
fear of death. “Santiago
Lopez,” Elms said, pointing down creek from his house, “told me about his father
who lost his herd after they drank out of the creek one sunny day in the
1920s.” Elms,
who gets his water from the Cibolo Creek, had it tested in the late 1980s and
found good water except for a high concentration of gold and silver. He
contacted the Texas Railroad Commission about the pile of tailings in the
Cibolo Creek, left over from the hay-day of ore processing. They
inspected the site in 1990 and shortly thereafter the EPA got involved. “Rather
than litigate, they pressured American Metals to come in and clean up the
mountain of tailings they left in the creek,” Elms said. “There were many,
many tons, so much it could not be moved, so they covered it up. “They
found lead, mercury and cadmium,” he said. “They took out billions of dollars
of silver. It wasn’t too much to ask them to spend three or four million
dollars to clean it up.” Elms
served as Presidio County Judge from 1990 to 1994. During
his reign he was able to secure funding for modernizing the water and sewage
system in Redford but was unable to convince his neigh-bors in Shafter. “The
mine didn’t want Shafter to go outside for their water system needs,” Elms
said. Today
much of Shafter’s water is supplied by water pumped from the mine. “We
were told not to drink it,” former Shafter resident Lori Keyes said. “Most
of the people in Shafter get their water from the mine,” Elms said. “The
water sits in the shaft and it [heavy metal] is bound to leach into the
water.” Booth
was asked about who would supply the water for Shafter in the future. “We’re
not sure, but we’re going to take our time, do things properly and consult
with the locals,” he said. By
1940 the “East” shaft had deepened to 900 feet. Water had begun to seep in
and the pumps were having trouble keeping the shaft dry. In
1942, according to the Shafter Museum, “water flooding, labor problems, poor
quality ore and low silver prices” were the reason the mine shut down. A
press release from Aurcana said the mine was shut down in 1942 “not from lack
of ore, but by the War Act.” Four
wars and 66 years have passed since the last commercial attempts to extract
silver from the limestone hills of Shafter. Ghostly
adobe structures, weathered to half walls, dot the desert landscape around
the mine. It
is not uncommon to see buzzards circle above it in the wind-swept air. Locals
talk about the three wild burros that can sometimes be seen at the
chain-locked entrance to the silver mine as if they were the keepers waiting
for the new boomers to arrive. Five-year
resident and Presidio Elementary teacher Kevin Long was queried about
resumption of silver mining in Shafter. “Ask
me in a year,” he said. “If there is a giant industrial glow across the
highway from us going 24 hours a day, it might not be so great.” |
Ticket
prices are $10 at the door for Saturday or $15 for the entire weekend. Some
vendor booths are still available. For more information contact Bennett Jones
at 432/837-3008. to
host WOW ALPINE
– Author, musician and personality Kinky “The Kinkster” Friedman will preside
over the Alpine Rotary Club’s Way-Out-West Texas Book Festival Aug. 8 and 9
at Sul Ross State University here. The
literary event, which benefits the Alpine Public Library and its Marathon
branch, will include two meals with celebrity entertainment, a day full of
author presentations and a special silent auction featuring many collectible
books, among other items. Kick-off
time is Friday, Aug. 8, with a Chuckwagon Supper and Songfest on the grounds
of Kokernot Lodge where Friedman will introduce the guests, including
award-winning author, songwriter and performer Mike Blakely, who will sing
and play the guitar. This
ticketed event requires reservations. Free
daytime programs Saturday, Aug. 9, at Sul Ross’s Espino Conference Center
will feature a wide range of accomplished novelists and nonfiction writers
from throughout Texas. Keynote
speaker at 9 a.m. Saturday will be writer and performer Denise Chavez, whose
novel “Face of an Angel” won an American Book Award in 1995. All
day Saturday, authors, book-dealers and publishers will rent vendor space in
the reception area of the conference center to sell books to the visiting
public Others
who will be available to autograph their works include Elmer Kelton, Joe Nick
Patoski, Sarah Bird, Joaquin Jackson, James Evans, Mike Cox, Larry Thomas,
David Carlton, Sharon Spinks, Lee Merrill Byrd, Bobby Byrd, Roy Morey, Ben
Saenz, Bob Kinford, William MacLeod and Tim McKenzie. The
Silent Auction will be during the day adjacent to the sales and program
areas. On
Saturday evening, the festival will culminate in a Grand Finale Banquet, where
Friedman will hold forth. This banquet requires reservations. The
auction ends just as the banquet begins and winning bidders will claim their
auction items before they leave. A
signed limited edition of Larry McMurtry’s “In a Narrow Grave,” an inscribed book of poems by Edna St.
Vincent Millay and other collectible books will be auctioned. Paintings
by Carol Fairlie and James A. Mangum, a French-style grandfather clock, a
traditional pine hutch, a complete set of Franciscan tableware and many other
pieces will be up for bids. Committee
members Wanda Morgan, Lou Pauls, Arlene Griffis and Jean Hardy round out the
Rotary planning group. The
official event website, www.wowtxbookfestival.com,
includes the program schedule, meal ticket purchasing information, celebrity
profiles, contact information and more. Friday
night supper tickets, conference vendor spaces and Saturday banquet space are
limited and on a first-come, first-served basis. Chuckwagon
Supper & Songfest tickets are $25 each. Saturday night Grand Finale
Banquet tickets are $50. Auction
admission comes with the purchase of one of these tickets. To
reserve meal tickets, go to www.wowtxbookfestival.com/10.html
One
of the missions of Rotary is to promote literacy, said Alpine President
Charles Troxel. “Because
the Alpine Public Library Board of Directors has launched an ambitious
fundraising campaign to build a new, state-of-the-art facility for the Big
Bend region, Rotary voted unanimously to support that goal with a major
literary fund-raiser,” he said. “We
expect a great deal of enthusiasm for this event,” Festival Committee Chair
Steve Griffis said. “We are confident this will be a premier literary
festival for Trans-Pecos Texas and perhaps for the entire state.” MARATHON
– Arlene Griffis read “Baxter Barret Brown’s Bass Fiddle” and “Baxter Barret
Brown’s Cowboy Band” by Tim McKenzie at the Marathon Public Library summer
reading program last week. There
were 15 children and six adults present and the children made cowboys out of
toilet tissue rolls as they listened to a CD of cowboy songs. McKenzie
will be a featured author at the Alpine Rotary Club’s Way Out West Texas Book
Festival on August 9, which benefits the Alpine Public Library and its
Marathon branch. He
will appear at a special children’s program, which is free to the public, at
3 p.m. August 9 in the Espino Conference Center at Sul Ross. All
parents are encouraged to bring children of all ages to the program in which
McKenzie will entertain by playing six different musical instruments and
sharing his original stories with the children. Both
books will be available for sale at the festival and McKenzie will be
available after the program to autograph them. Of
interest to both parents and teachers is the fact that both books are in a
“read-along” format with accompanying CDs included with the book. The
read-along format is ideal for beginning readers as well as for learners of
English as a second language. MARATHON
– The Post Park five miles south of here was full of people again over the
weekend. The
Aguilar family reunion was in full swing, complete with dancing mariachis,
kids swimming and people dancing. The
south end of the park hosted the Looney-Mendez wedding. Ronny Looney and
Lesly Mendez were married on Saturday, July 19. The
park recently underwent some “clean-up” procedures, but seems to be back in
use daily. Locals
are cooling off in the water and using the community park with picnics,
parties and the like. Recent showers have added a touch of green to the
scenery. ALPINE
– Margaret Matthews of Marathon ISD joined
Sul Ross State University history faculty members Judith Parsons and Matt
Walter and 11 other area high school
history teachers touring early American historic
sites this month. The field trip was funded by the Teaching American History grant
via the US Department of Education. This is the second year of the TAH grant, awarded to the Alpine
Independent School District and its partners in 2006. The group visited historic sites in Boston, MA, and the
surrounding area, including Lexington, Concord, Old Sturbridge, Salem, New
Bedford and Plymouth. They also visited Philadelphia and Valley Forge, PA, Fort
McHenry, MD, and Williamsburg, Yorktown and Jamestown, VA. Joining Parsons, Walter, Matthews and Alpine ISD Project
Director Barbara Stooksberry were Sara Pittman, Donel Lara, Letty Hartnett,
Howard Hoover, Lonnie Flippen and David Donnell of Fort Davis ISD, Roberto
Lujan and Mikal Crowder of Presidio ISD, Caroline Fox and Brenda Criddle of
Alpine ISD and Betina Kearns of Terlingua ISD. Prior to the field trip, the teachers attended seven workshops
and seminars at Sul Ross throughout the school year. Parsons led the sessions, with a topic revolving around early
American history. The teachers are enrolled in the Sul Ross graduate program and
are now working on teaching projects dealing with early American history to
be used in their classrooms. “After visiting so many ports, everyone on the trip came away
with a better appreciation of the importance of water transportation in
Colonial America,” Walter said. Teachers studied Texas history in 2007, the first year of the
TAH grant funding. The Civil War will be the 2008-2009 school year topic. “The TAH grant has provided opportunities for the teachers that
would not have been possible otherwise,” Stooksberry said. “The funding has
allowed teachers to travel to sites that are key components to their
curriculum.” “I was really impressed by how determined each participant was
to bring as much as possible back to his or her classroom,” Parsons said. “We
had fun, but we took the trip very seriously with an eye to improve our
teaching.” |