The Hal Flanders Recycling
Center accepts glass, tin and
aluminum cans, paper, plas-
tics #1 and #2, magazines,
cardboard and more.
Visit: www.alpinerecyles.org
to learn more about how and
where to recycle or call
432.294.3183 for details.
Funding made possible by the Texas
Commission for Environmental Quality
through the Rio Grande Council of
Governments.
Time of the Rangers: Texas Rangers from 1900 to the Present
Mike Cox, author
New York: A Forge Book (2009) $27.99
BEER GARDEN
& WINE BAR
Noon to 2am
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412 E Holland Ave
Alpine
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At the “Y” in Fort Davis
Monday - Saturday 11-8
426-2020
Simply good food
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Lessons by arrangement - AFTERNOONS … CALL US!
wire wrapping, chain making, bead embroidery, loom beading
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Lots of books on these and other subjects
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26
Cenizo
Y
L
ast year author Mike Cox
published the first of his
Texas Ranger histories
entitled The Texas Rangers:
Wearing the Cinco Peso, 1821-
1900 (Forge Books). This year,
the second volume has become
available, and it is a pleasurable
read.
In 1985, Mike became pub-
lic information officer for the
Texas Department of Public
Safety (DPS). It was a position
he held for 15 years. Those
years of contact with DPS offi-
cers and staff were worth a
bucket of gold to Cox and
through him to us as readers.
He has access to material that
few others enjoy.
Time of the Rangers begins
with a dovetail chapter on
“Heroes of Old,” which recaps
the first volume and leads into
the 20th century. The first
paragraph finds a group of
“old” Texas Rangers sitting in a
smoky banquet room of “the
opulent Orient Hotel . . . in the
thriving city of Dallas.”
The text moves quickly to a
time of real danger and trouble
along the Rio Grande. In 1910,
revolution broke out in Mexico.
Problems of revolutionary
“spillover,” a lot like we are now
experiencing along the interna-
tional boundary, became major
as time went on. Armed groups
of desperate Mexicans crossing
the river to raid, rob and plun-
der caused a response by all
border-area law enforcement,
from elected county sheriffs
and constables to appointed
city police. The Rangers (“los
rinches”) were also sent in. Cox
does not shirk his duties in
reporting the dark side of
Ranger history that took place
during that epoch. Hundreds of
Mexicans were hanged and
First Quarter 2010
shot summarily along the lower
Rio Grande by, for lack of a
better description, Ranger
gangs.
Cox also reports factually on
a massacre perpetrated by
Texas Rangers at Porvenir in
January 1918. The tiny agri-
cultural community rested on
the north bank of the Rio
Grande in Far West Texas.
Porvenir has never been reoc-
cupied; the history of the mas-
sacre has been kept quiet for
almost a century; it sorely need-
ed to become broad-spoken
public record. Thanks to Mike
Cox, it now is.
In 1920, the same year the
Mexican conflict ground to a
halt, the Volstead Act went into
effect in the United States.
Better known as Prohibition,
the act made illegal the sale,
manufacture and transporta-
tion of alcoholic beverages.
The entire Mexican border
became an entrepot for smug-
gling operations. Rangers
linked up with federal officers
in efforts to stem the flow, but
where there’s a demand, there
will be a supply. It took 13 years
to undo this unfortunate
amendment. All the law
enforcement efforts that had
been expended were wasted. In
the end, Prohibition caused
more problems than it solved.
The discovery of oil across
much of Texas caused serious
law enforcement concerns.
Boom towns sprang up
overnight, bringing in criminal
elements that local lawmen had
no experience dealing with.
Rangers were often sent in to
assist, in some cases to take
over, when local sheriffs or pros-
ecutors went “on the take.”
During
the
Great
Depression, crime surged
across Texas like a tidal wave.
The fast automobile played a
crucial role in assisting rene-
gade outlaws including the
Clyde Barrow gang. Under the
direction of Sheriff Henderson
Jordan of Bienville Parish,
Louisiana, former Ranger
Capt. Frank Hamer and four
other Texans, as well as Jordan
and his deputy, ambushed
Barrow and his “gun moll,”
Bonnie Parker, on May 23,
1934. The Barrow gang was
finished. Texans rejoiced and as
Texans are wont to do, lavished
their praise on the Rangers
even though the elected
Louisiana had been clearly in
charge of the operation.
It is almost certain that
another gang of bank robbers
headed by John Dillinger also
spent time at a tourist court in
Balmorhea, during the period;
while in the region “Public
Enemy Number One” and sev-
eral of his cohorts reportedly
toured the Big Bend, stopping
at Johnson’s Ranch and
Trading Post on the Rio
Grande for refreshments.
Dillinger’s presence went unde-