Terlingua Off-Grid: Zoey and Kevin Sexton
In the mid-1990s Zoey and Kevin
Sexton were living and traveling in
their RV when they discovered Big
Bend National Park and fell in love
with the area. During one memorable
soak in the National Park hot springs
they met Angie Dean, the original
owner of the Starlight Theatre in the
Terlingua Ghost town. Mid-soak,
Angie offered them part-time work,
one small part of a menagerie of
(post-(semi)retirement) odd jobs and
community
projects
around
Terlingua they’ve engaged in
throughout
the
years.
From
waitressing to bartending and
guiding from Jeep and horseback, to
helping establish a community
garden and recycling program for
South Brewster County, the Sextons
quickly became valuable members of
Terlingua’s remote and unique
community.
For a while, they continued living
in their intrepid RV, first in the park
campgrounds and later for three
years amongst the cottonwoods and
eucalyptus at La Kiva RV Park.
When they landed a long term
caretaking job on Terlingua Creek,
they knew the Big Bend was more
than just a temporary stomping
ground. For some time, they
continued to spend summers in their
native Minnesota, and more recently
Except for the coldest winter nights or in times of extreme wind and rain, when they move
into the main house, the Sexton’s bedroom is an open-air stand alone building.
pieces of the hottest months in
Virginia, where their son lives with
his family. In 1999 they bought 40
acres bordering Big Bend National
Park and made the Chihuahuan
desert their permanent home. They
moved the RV onto a magnificent
piece of the raw undeveloped desert,
which through their persistent
ingenuity grew to encompass 200
acres and five structures.
Since the 70s, the Sextons
developed and sustained an interest
in alternative energy and natural
building. They were eager to
manifest their vision of a home
ensconced in the solitude, peace, and
rugged beauty of a remote location,
without sacrificing the comforts of
modern life. Homesteading in pre-
“boom” Terlingua, before the town
hosted even a hardware store, the
goal was to utilize their savings in
building a compound which would be
self-supporting and require very little
in the way of monthly bills.
More than 20 years later, they are
a testament to the power of vision
and dedication as they enjoy a
comfortable existence in a home they
built slowly over the years, without
heavy machinery and far from the
supply chain of box stores. As Kevin
likes to muse, “We are not rich in
money, but we are rich in time.” n
Zoey and Kevin Sexton
An interior view of the bathhouse. The detailed stonework was constructed by a local master
mason.
26
Cenizo
Spring 2020