Bill Dodson’s stepfather, Sotero Morin, and young Bill (left) loading
burros with candelilla plants, about 1948.
made sure that he was asleep in bed when
Crawford left their camp. “After I started talking I
got slapped across the mouth a lot for talking when
I should have been listening,” he added.
Bill was liberated from the wax camp when he
was 16. A school opened at San Vicente, on the
Rio Grande upstream from Boquillas, and his
family moved there so that the children could go
to school. He entered the first grade, worked as a
cowboy for Sheriff Jim Skinner and drove the
school bus. “I was driving the school bus before I
learned to read and write,” he told me. He also
learned to have fun. “I never had fun until I went
to school,” he told me. “I never knew any boys my
own age.”
Bill joined the Air Force at 18, served four years,
married and came back to Alpine, where he had a
30-year career as a mechanic with the Texas
Department of Transportation. Today he is a
cheerful, open-faced man of 76, tall, lean and
witty, with a bushy head of black hair turning gray
and very blue eyes. He clearly enjoys his role as an
expert on Big Bend National Park. Looking back
on his life, he says, “There’s lots of ranchers that’ll
tell you that they made wax, but the fact is that it
was the Mexicans that did it while they watched.
I’m the only Anglo that ever made wax down
here, and I’ll tell you, I didn’t volunteer.”
Mexican
and
American
Food
Noon Buffet Wednesday and Friday
Famous Beef & Chicken Fajitas • Ice Cream • Clean, Fast Service
Rene & Maria Franco, Owners
513 O’Reilly Street • Downtown Presidio
432.229.4409
located on HWY 118
/2&$6('(21(*"#(--.
4 mi. S. of Fort Davis
/(0,2(32(2)(5246(7$8,5
23(1(;<=>(?21<3$6
closed major holidays
&/25('(0$-24(+2/,'$:5
Open 9-5, Mon.-Sat.
9992&'4,224*
/EF(F/
Desert Rat Club Summer Day Camp—July 18–22
Annual BBQ & Benefit Auction—August 6
7 L I L ? K L M
Change your Perspective: Climb Mt. Livermore
U,8,1*(21(6+((U$1'Z(K,*(K(1'(M$1&+(3[(*,.((<(7(&(0%(4(-
5246(7$8,5(I+4,560$5(K,4'(I2716(<(7(&(0%(4(-=
—September
10
K$/024+($(I+4,560$5(K,4'(I2716(<(7(&(0%(4(-G
Butterfly Count—September 17
Fall Bird Count—September 24
!"#"$%"$%&'()*)+,'-)*)%+."'/&*,#,$,)0'1*,2'3!
Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute, Est. 1974 6
7282'9:;'!<=0'>:+,'(%?#*0'@A'
! B6
P.O.
Box 905, Fort Davis, TX 79734
Cenizo
Fourth Quarter 2012
21