Fort Davis, Texas

Alpine, Texas

Weather: low 31 degrees, high 45 degrees, cloudy

We were expecting a little snow, but it looks as though it has passed us by. Drat! I know the folks up north have gotten more than enough this winter, but we would like to have seen a little. Plus, it aggravates the grandkids when we get snow and they don't.

Yesterday, we took a short drive of about 25 miles north to Fort Davis, located (where else) in the Davis Mountains. I seem to be able to home in on the nice old courthouses, so here's the one for Jeff Davis County. It was built in 1910, and is designed in the Classical Revival style. I don't know much about styles, but I know what I like, and this one is nice.

Can you guess who the county is named for? That's right, Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy. Before he was the president of the Confederacy, he was the US Secretary Of War before the Civil War.

Fort Davis is a small town of about 1,000 people, while the county only has about 2,500 people. Not thickly settled at all. Tourism is important to the economy, and there are several natural attractions in the area that draw people. The beauty of the mountains, the climate is cooler in the summer with an altitude of about 5,100 feet, Davis Mountains State park, and McDonald Observatory, operated by the University of Texas and located a few miles away, all combine to create a great place to visit. This picture of the observatory was found on their website. I hope to have some that I take of the observatory in the next few days.

It was fascinating to drive through the side streets of Fort Davis and suddenly realize that most of the streets are not paved. In this day when it seems the entire world is becoming one continuous piece of concrete, we happen upon a little town that bucks the trend.

When we sere finished in the little town, we drove on through town about a half mile to the site of Fort Davis National Historic Monument. The old fort was placed here in 1854 and served to protect the area from Indians and bandits until 1891. It was named after Jefferson Davis (I wonder if he named it?) while he was still the Secretary of War for the US. The old fort is probably one of the best remaining examples of what the forts in the west were like. The following are some of the pictures I took while there. Note the terrain.

This is one of the enlisted men's barracks.



This is the post hospital. As I was looking at some of the tools the doctors used, I was glad that medical care is so much better now. Although, if you listen to some of the talk out of Washington, they would have us believe that we have a third world medical system in the US.



This is the commanding officer's house. It was furnished nicer than I thought it would be.






When the fort was at it's busiest, it had over 100 buildings. Today, there are 24 buildings that have been refurbished, with foundations and ruins of about 50 still visible. An interesting side note: This fort was manned by the famous Buffalo Soldiers.

More later, be safe.

Today's Town - Indianola, Mississippi: I-Town

Not all who wander are lost.