NOW SHOWING AT FORT LEATON:
The Really Wild West!
by Erin Caro Aguayo
T
he picture-perfect scenery and lazy waves
of summer heat near Presidio and Big
Bend Ranch State Park belie a past
steeped in violence, secrets and treachery. And
throughout the last 160 years of that past has
stood the building originally called El Fortin,
` then
El Fortin
` de
` de Burgess and finally El Fortin
Leaton, Fort Leaton.
This fort was never a military fort but one built
by the trader, mercenary, land grabber and shady
dealer Ben Leaton to protect his merchandise,
horses, men and family from Indian raids and
theft.
Throughout its history, the fort has been a
crossroads for freighters and travelers coming
from Chihuahua through La Junta de los
Rios/Presidio and on into Texas and beyond.
It was a residence until the1920s and then had
the good luck to be the focus of the preservation
movement that began in the 1930s and contin-
ued through the 1960s. When it came into the
hands of the Texas Parks and Wildlife
Department (TPWD) in the 1970s, it opened as a
state historic site, telling the story of the region
and its people.
With an average yearly visitation of 6,500 peo-
ple, the fort has been a popular stop along the
River Road since then. But with parks and
wildlife’s increased focus on Big Bend Ranch
State Park, the fort, which is a natural jumping off
place for park visitors, deserved some sprucing
up.
These days, the heavy and low-lit exhibits
from the 70s are being updated and freshened by
exhibit and curatorial staff, headed by Dana
Younger and Joanne Avant and assisted by Linda
Hedges, Nola Davis and Tim Roberts.
The “new” fort will be partially furnished with
period pieces, and the original look of the fort will
be further demonstrated in sketches of the rooms
as they might have looked.
Throughout the life of the fort historic site
there has been a video about the fort’s history.
Tony Manriquez, the site superintendent, wanted
also to replace the video that introduces visitors to
Fort Leaton. He wanted to cover two big pieces of
fort history that had not been well addressed –
Ben Leaton’s story and how parks and wildlife
went about preserving the site of the fort in the
1970s.
14
These two parts of the story seemed a natural
for the new video, and so the work began.
Angela Reed and Cindy Brandimarte from
TPWD’s Austin headquarters wrote the script
and produced the film, and Alpine artist Avram
Dumitrescu provided watercolor illustrations.
Tackling a video story for which there was no
photographic record was a challenge, but the
writers were unfazed.
“We turned to Fort Davis resident and histori-
an Lonn Taylor to come up with a story line,”
Brandimarte said. “Angela and I worked on a
script, and we ran into a big problem: How do
you tell that story? Photography had just been
invented.”
“We didn’t have historic photos of that site
and certainly not of Ben Leaton,” Reed said,
“nor of any of the wild and dramatic events that
are part of the story.”
They needed pictures, but where would they
come from?
“Lonn Taylor suggested Alpine illustrator
Avram Dumitrescu to create watercolor draw-
ings; so we contacted him,” Reed said.
“We found one image from the Marfa Public
Library titled ‘Ben Leaton,’ but we think that the
photo postdates Leaton’s death,” Reed said.
“There were no known photographers in
Texas until the 1840s, typically in cities; the earli-
est known photographer in San Antonio was
1850, and Leaton died in 1851. So, it is possible
but not likely that it’s Leaton, in our opinion,”
Brandimarte said.
“Without the face of Ben Leaton or of any of
the people we were talking about, we didn’t know
how to depict him,” Reed said. “We asked that
when Avram drew him that it was never a
straight-on image of his face because we don’t
know what he looked like.”
“I did each illustration in pencil,” explained
Dumitrescu, “and some of them came together
pretty quickly, but others I’d send a sketch, and
they’d make suggestions, and I’d make changes
and send it back. I could go into Photoshop and
move things, combine various sketches and so on.
I was using technology to make it easier. If I had-
n’t had e-mail, I couldn’t have done it.”
continued on page 27
Cenizo
Third Quarter 2011