ownership,
out of fear
the facilities would be vandalized if left
abandoned. The State Parks Board
contracted with Baylor and Maggie
Smith to run the operation during the
transition.
The Smiths settled in to Hot
Springs in 1942, but it was only two
years later that Baylor died, leaving
Maggie with the prospect of running
the concession alone. A competent
woman, she rose to the challenge,
despite the many dangers of living in
the harsh, remote border region. Etta
Koch, who had come to the Big Bend
hoping to cure her tuberculosis, was
the administrative assistant for the
park from 1946 to 1955. Koch recalled
that the Park Service wanted Maggie
as the concessionaire because of her
fluent Spanish and her strong rapport
with the Mexican communities across
the river, many of whom would travel
miles to trade at her store.
While living at Hot Springs, Etta
Koch painted a mural in the
Livingstone House she rented with her
husband Peter. When Maggie saw it,
she asked Etta to paint another for her,
one Etta entitled “Madonna of the
continued from page 16
20
Cenizo
Desert,” which she says in her book
Lizards on the Mantle, Burros at the Door: A
Big Bend Memoir she fashioned after a
Mexican woman she had seen washing
her baby in nearby Tornillo Creek.
Another mural soon followed for
Maggie’s kitchen, of a Mexican boy
kneeling by his burro. Though the
paint ran out before completion, the
murals still remain, visible to visitors
today. Continuing the theme, Maisie
Lee, now a resident of Marathon,
painted more murals to brighten up
the guest cabins.
Maggie Smith served as a midwife
in the remote Rio Grande community,
comprised of the Hot Springs settle-
ment itself and the communities of San
Vicente and Boquillas, Mexico. John
Jameson, author of The Story of Big Bend
National Park, talks about one young
couple whom Maggie was driving to
the doctor in Marathon during the
wife’s labor. Despite her best efforts,
the baby was coming more quickly
than Maggie could drive, so she calm-
ly pulled over and delivered the baby
in the car. The birth went smoothly,
but the husband was so distraught by
the experience that he was ill the whole
way home to Hot Springs.
Second Quarter 2015
Another time, Maggie and Etta
Koch were attending a wedding in
Boquillas, across the river and a few
miles downstream from Hot Springs.
Etta describes it as “…a pretty wed-
ding, with men and women siting on
opposite sides of the dance floor.”
Suddenly, one of the guests went into
labor. Maggie delivered the baby, and
the party continued. Maggie once said
that she had “…delivered so many
babies, I’ve lost count.”
Known by many as the
“Godmother of the Mexican People,”
or “La Madrina,” Maggie went out of
her way to help those in need. She was
also famous for bringing candy to the
children in the Mexican villages on
Christmas. Her store was the only one
within 175 miles of the border on the
Mexican side, and rather than taking
advantage of her monopoly, she gladly
offered credit to those who could not
afford her wares, and bartered readily
with others who had skins or hogs but
no cash.
The Park Service was a little con-
cerned about how their concessionaire
was handling her business, and asked
Ross Maxwell, the Park’s first superin-
tendent, to look into the matter.
According to Jameson, Maxwell was
frank in his report.
“Mrs. Smith doesn’t keep books,”
he wrote. “She sends in an order to the
wholesaler in Alpine; the mail carrier
delivers it to Hot Springs. She pays the
bill and if there’s any money left, that’s
profit.” Maxwell went on to explain
that Maggie’s system of barter and
trade may be unorthodox, but that she
was shrewd and a good “horse trader.”
On his recommendation, the Park
Service accepted her unique account-
ing system.
Maggie was a generous spirit to
those in need, but she was also known
for her toughness and entrepreneurial
spirit. Jameson notes that she was
known to be a smuggler of candelilla
wax, an activity he says “added excite-
ment to her life.” At the time the can-
delilla plant was a valuable commodi-
ty, the wax produced from it in high
demand, and the Mexican govern-
ment had a stranglehold on the har-
vesting and production. Poor villagers
would harvest the plants and distill the
wax to sell to smugglers on the U.S.
side of the river. These smugglers
would act as middlemen to the refiners
further north, selling the contraband