Photo courtesy of the National Park Service
After a Mexican export tax was passed in 1937, smuggling candelilla to the United States became a lucrative trade. Here a smug-
gler harvests the plant with Mule Ears Peak in the background.
CANDELILLA ~ GREEN GOLD
By Danielle Gallo
T
he major industry of the Big
Bend has always been ranching,
with forays into mining, guayule
rubber, oil and tourism. This breathtak-
ing and remote sector of the Chihua -
huan Desert was left out of the massive
resource rushes of the 19th century
which occurred elsewhere in the United
States, from timber and gold to cropland
and more easily exploited fossil fuels.
There is, however, a resource in the
northern Chihuahuan Desert which
enjoyed a rush of sorts in the first half of
the 20th century: candelilla wax.
Candelilla is a plant native to the
Chihuahuan Desert which grows in
clumps on well-drained slopes and rises.
Seemingly leafless, it does, in fact, pro-
duce small leaves and inconspicuous
pink and white flowers which drop off
during the first dry spell of the year. A
hardy perennial, it can grow to 3 feet in
16
height and will spread in ever-widening
clumps up to 6 feet in diameter if left
undisturbed.
Candelilla produces a waxy coating
on its straight green stalks to protect itself
from moisture loss during the desert
summers. This wax is second only to
carnauba wax in quality for high-grade
floor and furniture polish, cosmetics
and – most importantly for the wax
industries of the Big Bend – an excellent
waterproofing agent.
The wax rush was fueled largely by
the First World War, when its exception-
al waterproofing abilities were sought for
the tents and ammunition of soldiers;
even before the war, however, there was
a great deal of interest in the wax for
commercial purposes.
When the 30th Texas Legislature
issued the first permits for the gathering
of candelilla plants in Brewster and
Cenizo
Third Quarter 2010
Terrell counties in 1907, there was
already enough interest in the commer-
cial possibilities of the product to make
the leases valuable commodities. When
a five-year lease for harvesting was
issued in 1911 to G.B. Fenley and G.E.
Brashear of Uvalde by the General
Land Office, which regulated the har-
vesting of candelilla, it cost the entrepre-
neurs $1,000. The pair immediately sold
their lease to E.D. Lowe of Brewster
County for $7,000 in cash and $13,000
in stock options in the American Wax
Company.
The process for economically extract-
ing the wax was developed by Oscar
Pacius, a chemist in Monterrey, Mexico.
Pacius worked for the Continental Wax
Company of Arkansas, which had wax
factories in Northern Mexico as early as
1910.
Pacius’ method involves boiling the
plants in a vat set into the ground. The
plants are compressed into the vats by
stomping. Sulphuric acid is added to the
water, and the stompers must take care
not to burn their feet in the mixture:
many wax campsites, both modern and
historic, are littered with the spent shoes
of stompers. As the boiling process con-
tinues, the wax floats to the top of the
vat and is skimmed off and left to hard-
en, after which it can be further refined.
The boiled candelilla plants are spread
out to dry and are later used to fuel the
vat fires.
Large factories for wax production
were appearing all over Northern
Mexico in the second decade of the
20th century, where candelilla had been
exploited for generations for use in can-
dles, figurines and waterproofing. One
of the first production factories
belonged to Ralph Ogden, a Texan who