Voices of the
BIG BEND
Jim Glendinning: The Galloping Scot, Author, World Traveler and tour operator to Copper Canyon, Mexico.
Story and photographs by Jim Glendinning
Jeff heINaTZ
Jeff Heinatz, health inspector, has
served the tri-county region for 31
years, and is still working. The other
Jeff Heinatz, wildlife photographer,
has taken a myriad of unique wildlife
shots over the same period and still
always carries his camera at his side.
Heinatz was born in January 1961
in San Marcos, TX to Maidia Moore
Heinatz and Larry Heinatz, who
worked as a dairy inspector for the
Texas Department of Health. An older
brother, Clifton, died suddenly of a
brain aneurism, aged 44.
Growing up in San Angelo (where
the family moved to) was agreeable.
Heinatz liked school and still retains
friends from second grade. At San
Angelo Lake View High School he
worked two jobs and developed an
interest in agriculture, in particular
showing lambs. He graduated in 1979.
At Angelo State College, he also
worked two jobs and studied physical
education and biology. Crucially, he
took a course in news photography to
complete the degree requirements.
Graduating in 1985, he landed a job as
Health Inspector almost immediately
in Odessa, TX with the Ector County
Health Department.
In 1985, Heinatz married Dru
Kelly of Big Spring, TX, whom he met
at college. A son, Jarrod, who today
works in real estate in Austin, was born
in 1990. A daughter, Jesseca, was born
three years later. She works as a regis-
tered nurse at Shannon Hospital in
San Angelo. Dru is teaching for the
28th year at Alpine High School.
Heinatz and his wife moved to
Alpine in 1987 to be the health inspec-
tor for a 36-county region stretching
from El Paso city limits to Mason and
Brady, TX. His main responsibility
has always been restaurant inspection.
He drives huge distances. Fortunately
he loves driving, and his temperament
is suited to a job that can cause stress.
14
Cenizo
Jeff heINaTZ
alpine
He has the authority to fine and close
down non-compliant restaurants but
seldom has to.
Heinatz has honed his skills as pho-
tographer over the years. He has a nat-
ural aptitude to sense where wildlife
can be sighted, and photographed. If
he does not see them (a bobcat in
brushy terrain or a coyote in the open)
he is prepared to wait for up to two
hours. He hides his face with a mask
and his hands with gloves.
He moves calmly and quietly.
Agitated, loud movements scare ani-
mals. He has a device he blows to imi-
tate prey animal calls, thereby bringing
the predator within viewing distance.
He gets plenty of pictures in state parks
and BBNP (where, on the Lost Mine
Trail in the 1990s, he saw seven bears).
Recently he photographed a bear
“posing for him,” as he calls it, with a
paw on a tree stump.
A visit to Heinatz’s office reveals
wildlife pictures from floor to ceiling.
First Quarter 2017
SaRah BOURBON
Terlingua
He has never gone in much for exhibi-
tions of his work, but plans to compile
one or two photography books when
he retires in two years. It seems obvi-
ous he will never retire from taking
photographs.
SaRah BOURBON
Sarah Whitson was born in 1946 in
Denton, TX, the only child of
Caroline and John Whitson, who, with
his father and brothers, ran the family
firm, Whitson Food Products. From
sixth to ninth grades she attended the
private Selwyn School, in Denton.
In her sophomore year she trans-
ferred to Denton High School. She
discovered drama and quickly realized
that she had no talent for acting, but
enjoyed the tech stuff. She joined the
school newspaper, was given a column
she called “’Round the Bend,” and
had found her college major.
In 1955 the family took a vacation
to Big Bend, having read about the
ROBeRTO LUJaN
Presidio
area. They stayed at Indian Lodge in
Davis Mountains State Park and later
drove the River Road, an early taste of
the area that later would captivate her.
She attended North Texas State
University, now the University of
North Texas, where she studied jour-
nalism and relished dorm living. She
graduated in 1969 with a major in
journalism and a minor in theater. She
then embarked on a series of writing
jobs, which included the Associated
Press in Dallas and the newspaper of
the Army & Air Force Exchange
Service.
In 1975 she was hired by the three-
year-old Texas Monthly. Four years later
she was managing editor. She found
she was good at “getting the magazine
out the door to the printers.” She met
several people who would become
major writers, and is very proud of
having been at Texas Monthly at the
start. One assignment was a Far Flung
Adventures raft trip through Mariscal