220 East Oak
THE WHITFORDS ARE BACK!
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and Cowboy Music
Playing almost nightly
at the Hallie Stillwell
Hall of Fame
Photo courtesy Archives of the Big Bend, Bryan Wildenthal Memorial Library, Sul Ross State University, Alpine, Texas
39 miles south of Marathon and 6 miles east of 385 on Ranch Road 2627
Call for times 432.376.2244 • www.stillwellstore.com • www.thewhitfordsmusic.com
A magical
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432.229.4165
Off the
Pinto Canyon Rd
near Ruidosa
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under new management
Marathon Motel
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Private Bath/Cable TV
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432.386.4241
HWY 90 W • Marathon • www.marathonmotel.com
26
Artist’s sketch of Fort Peña Colorado.
FORT PEÑA COLORADO
by Bob Miles
F
or a time, this military
post stood alone on the
vanishing frontier of
the Big Bend region.
With the closing of Fort
Davis in 1891, the former sub-
post of Camp or Cantonment
Peña Colorado became a fort.
Although the Indians had effec-
tively been driven from the area
and placed on reservations, the
problem of outlaws and rustlers
remained, and it was largely left
to the few soldiers at Peña
Colorado to patrol and guard a
vast region between the rail-
road and the Rio Grande.
In August of 1879, a tempo-
rary camp was set up on land
leased by the government near
a spring beneath the colorful
rock formation known as the
Rainbow Cliffs a few miles from
what would become Marathon.
Flooding soon caused the camp
to be moved a short distance to
a drier location.
Cenizo
First Quarter 2011
Fort Peña Colorado
(Red Rock)
Established in 1879 as a
means of preventing Indian raids
into Mexico. Raided by Apaches
in 1881. Abandoned in 1893
after Western Texas had been
permanently cleared of
Indians.
Erected by the State of Texas,
1936
The post was first manned
by Companies C and F of the
25th Infantry and soldiers from
Companies B and H of the
10th Cavalry. Quarters re -
mained quite crude, as they
were thrown together by troop-
ers who were inexperienced
builders. The soldiers’ duties
consisted mainly of providing
escorts along the road between
Fort Clark and Fort Davis,
scouting the rugged region and
pursuing bandits, as well as rou-
tine garrison duties. The state-
ment on the 1936 marker
regarding Apaches attacking
Fort Peña Colorado is incor-
rect.
Even after the Southern
Pacific Railroad reached Mara -
thon in 1882, living facilities
remained poor. An 1885 quar-
termaster’s report stated the
roofs of the officers’ and men’s
quarters “... are of brush and
dirt covered with canvas and all
leak. They are all ill-construct-
ed and most involve continual
expense to keep in habitable
order ... Some of the buildings
are not worth further labor in
repairs.”
After July of 1884, the post
was mostly occupied by units of
the 10th Cavalry. Among those
serving with the black troops of
continued on page 27