From page 4
adjacent to Mitre Peak. The abundance of
water in an environment where water is
scarce would have made the area around
Mitre a natural camp or settlement for early
man. In the 1927 Brand, the Sul Ross
yearbook written by students, a chapter on
Mitre Peak and nearby Fern Canyon
describes the area adjacent to the peak as
having been one of the largest "Indian
villages in West Texas." The short chapter
also claims that "neatly laid-off streets have
been ploughed up, and fragments of rock
terraces stand in a semi-circle facing a big
spring." The 1927 Brand also claims the
existence of a "Chief’s grave, which yielded
valuable relics—beads and finely wrought
arrowheads." The area was a popular picnic
spot for Sul Ross students during that time,
and students likely spent many days
exploring the area and sharing stories.
Another pre-historic grave site was claimed
to have been found in the cliffs of what is
now a part of the Girl Scout Camp. One
member of summer camp staff remembers
inspecting these bones as a camper when she
was a young scout. In a 1960 article in the
Odessa American, Barry Scobee describes a
hidden spring found in the area, known as
"ojo escondido de agua." Scobee writes, "It
had been hidden by Indians with a sort of
cement composed of caliche earth, animal
blood and ashes, and trash, as it was the
redman's practice to conceal water from
pursuing calvarymen and their horses."
In spite of efforts like these, the Frontier
Battalion, in conjunction with the Federal
Indian Campaign of 1874-75, were successful
in the removal of native peoples from the
area. Around 1880 the newly-formed Texas
Rangers erected a camp across from Mitre
peak where the Girl Scout Ranch is now
established. Ranger camps such as these,
combined with U.S. Military posts, were the
boundary of the frontier. As native people
were no longer a threat to emigration, the
Rangers’ main concern at this time and in
the years to come were “bandits, cattle
thieves, stage and train robbers which
emerged from the wave of settlers, drifters,
26
Cenizo
Winter 2020
Photo by W.D. Smithers- currently part of Camp Mitre. Archives of the Big Bend - Sul Ross State University.
and speculators in Texas at the end of
Reconstruction.”(The Texas Rangers, 1935)
At the turn of the 19th century, Mitre peak
and its adjacent canyons were part of the
Walbridge Ranch, famous for its hospitality
and abundance of homegrown food.
According to Voices of the Mexican Border
(1933), "Each Sunday, weather permitting,
strings of buggies, hacks and wagons filled
with happy crowds could be seen driving
from Fort Davis, Marfa, and Alpine to the
Walbridge ranch. It is safe to say they
served more free meals during the 'Nineties'
than any other family." When the ranch sold
in 1911, the new owners, Jack and Molly
Tippits, continued dispensing this famous
hospitality.
In 1913, when the Tippits received the first
guest at their boarding house for adventurers
and nature lovers, parks and recreation was
as nascent a concept as the recently
established railroad carrying the first
tourists to the Big Bend region. The
National Park Service wasn't established
until 1916, and Big Bend National Park not
until 1944. Jack Tippits lead hikes up Mitre
Peak and introduced folks from around the
country to the flora, fauna, watering holes,
canyons, hot springs, archeological sites, and
the remote cultures of the Big Bend, as a
visionary and founding father of the outdoor
recreation industry.
What Jack and Molly Tippits pioneered in
building their boarding house and the
business they later named Mitre Peak Park,
is only one piece of a herculean
accomplishment, that to this day may be
unparalleled in the Big Bend and elsewhere.
Not only were they innkeepers, tour guides,
cooks and musicians; they also produced a
vast majority of the food they, their visitors,
and guests consumed—as well as supplying
meat, vegetables, and a multitude of fruit for
sale at market.
The legacy and contribution of Jack Tippits
goes deeper. An educated man, who met and
married his wife while she was his teaching
assistant in Fort McKavatt, Tippits kept a
detailed journal almost every day of his life
from 1913 to a few weeks before his death in
1939. A detailed interpretation of his
journals can be found in the Journal of Big
Bend Studies, titled "The J.A. Tippits
Journals and Tourism at Mitre Peak 1913-
1939,” written by Shirley Caldwell. Ms.
Caldwell is the wife of Jack and Molly