Nearly every living thing a desert dweller encountersbe it plant, bug, or beastis capable of drawing blood. And Mischer wanted the place to be fun. Lajitas Texas activities designed to keep your family as busy as it wants to be. The place seemed to be about three stars shy of the target, fine for the desert but not for the price. It is a nonprofit event to raise money for children's charities and local public service organizations. Lajitas Golf Resort and Spa 100 Main St, Terlingua, TX 8.2 Very Good 608 reviews How we verify reviews 10 - Excellent 273 8 - Good 206 6 - Okay 78 4 - Poor 39 2 - Terrible 12 8.7/10 Cleanliness 8.6/10 Staff & service 8.0/10 Amenities 8.0/10 Property conditions & facilities 8.2/10 Eco-friendliness 8/10 Good Christopher Jan 5, 2023 money and support her songwriting. Marlins David Tinsley has been a Lajitas weekender since falling in love with the region on his first river trip through Santa Elena Canyon, in 1974. There was a reason Big Bend hadnt already been overrun by the wealthy: the Chihuahuan Desert. Warren also serves as chairman of the general partner of Energy Transfer Equity. For Sales Info, Contact: Scott Beasley 214-981-0758 Welcome To LAJITAS GOLF RESORT Lajitas Golf Resort in Lajitas, Texas Tucked away in Texas' historic Big Bend between Big Bend National Park and Big Bend State Park lies Lajitas Resort, the perfect setting for your away-from-it-all adventure. [18], Warren donated $6 million to Governor Rick Perry's presidential campaign. And on the other side of the highway and a tall adobe wall, the Cavalry Post and La Questa rooms opened up onto a swimming pool lined with ristra-strung arbors and a view of Lajitas Mesa. He also funded the construction of a church and a school. I only had two rules: no fighting and no spitting, at least not in the store. associates and friends who include former Dallas Cowboys Charlie Waters These activities increased commerce across the Rio Grande into Texas; consequently, by 1900 Lajitas was designated a substation port of entry. After dinner some of our group went back to the resort, but my tour guide on the trip, the Lajitas general manager whod been assigned to babysit me, wanted a nightcap. The old trading post also remained operational. [5] He housed and subsidized an infirmary that provided affordable, reliable health care. goat. If you take a plane, you just show up. On the day of the wedding, after our adventure in. Earlier this year, Mr. Smith's dream officially ended in View 72 homes for sale in Lajitas, TX at a median listing home price of $89,000. Save. Still, Dennis struck me as an odd person to be championing the resorts willingness to act without a game plan. Bill Ivey owns the Ghost Town at Terlingua now, but he ran the trading post through the eighties. These days, Clay Henry can be found (stuffed) at Starlight Theatre in Terlingua, but Clay Henrys descendants continued to act as mayorat least until his grandson met a gnarly fate. [2][3] He serves on the advisory board of his alma mater, the University of Texas at Arlington. His dad, Rex, a Brewster County commissioner, owned Lajitas for nearly thirty years before selling it to Mischer in 1977. RV park, where he says it used to take a $100,000 membership to stay. A private buyer shipped it to a Lajitas golf course owned by oil and gas billionaire Kelcy Warren almost exactly two years since the Confederate . The result is a resort that is simultaneously swanky with somewhat exclusive vibeshelped along by the fact that there is literally nothing else aroundthat is also far more affordable than you might think. when Houston real estate developer Walter Mischer Sr. first conceived a But the true injustice came with my breakfast: $33 for coffee, a small bowl of granola, some strawberries, concentrated orange juice, and a cute little box of Special K, like the kind my mom used to provide before she trusted me to pour from the big-boy box. Black Jack's Crossing Skaggs also became successful in a candelilla wax business, the Lajitas Wax Company. Farming along the narrow floodplain of the river served to bring in more families, and by 1912 the town had a store, a saloon, a school with fifty pupils, and a customhouse. The first white settlers came to the area in the mid-1800s. The wild spirit of the Big Bend region is in full effect at this stunning course whose name pays tribute to U.S. Army Gen. John "Black Jack . The resort features an 18-hole golf course a luxury hotel and a variety of amenities and activities for guests to enjoy. On the Wide Plains West of Lubbock, a Chainsaw Carver Works From an Old Cotton Gin, Texas Lege Watch: A House Republican Fights for Chicken Freedom, Family Memories Echo Through an East Texas Shoe Shop, Texas Monthly Recognized by ASME in the 2023 National Magazine Awards, Our Guide to Johnson City, Where You Can Stroll to Wineries and Museums. The settlement is named after the Boquillas flagstone found in the area. . His whole model was based on the idea that he could somehow tame the desert, refashion it to suit his plan, and it was just a matter of time before his vision became known as Smiths Folly. Others wondered if Smiths bean counters had prevailed upon him to fund his dream with other peoples money. 1 (877) 525-4827. He says "I'm telling you. The Lajitas area was then bought by Rex Ivey, Jr., who brought electricity to the community in 1949 and sold part of it to Walter M. Mischer, a Houston entrepreneur and owner of Mischer Corporation. For the American football player, see, "Executive Profile - Energy Transfer Partners - Kelcy L. Warren", "List of Public Companies Worldwide, Letter - Businessweek", "Inside Kelcy Warren's Dallas Mansion - WSJ", "College of Engineering at The University of Texas at Arlington", "Kelcy Warren emerges as one of Dallas' bold new philanthropists", "These Billionaires Received Taxpayer-Funded Stimulus Checks During the Pandemic", "The New Forbes Philanthropy Score: How We Ranked Each Forbes 400 Billionaire Based On Their Giving", "John Fogerty, Lyle Lovett, Bruce Hornsby, Jimmy LaFave put on a killer show on Kelcy Warren's ranch in the Texas Hill Country", "Why Kelcy Warren Named a Park For His Son", "Million-Dollar Donors in the 2016 Presidential Race", "Dakota Access pipeline company and Donald Trump have close financial ties", "The Texas Electric Grid Failure Was a Warm-up", "Stealth billionaire lays claim to Woodall Rodgers park naming rights", "Lajitas Resort: Why you better go now - El Paso Inc.: Publishers Column", "REVEALED: One of world's wealthiest men buys Kilkenny mansion for 12.6m - Kilkenny Now - Your City. [23], In 2010, he bought the 3,500-acre BootJack Ranch near Pagosa Springs, Colorado, for $46.5 million. natural gas transportation company Energy Transfer Partners. Its previous owner, Austin multimillionaire Steve Smith, H.W. said. , we came back to resort and spent time lounging in the pool. kitchen and outdoor shower -- the woman who says she doesn't have Restaurant Manager; Facilities. In the late 1890s quicksilver was discovered near Terlingua, eleven miles from Lajitas, and a rapid influx of people followed. "misery ground into the walls. Facilities Maintenance Technician; HVAC I Technician/Electrician If you get bitten by a rattlesnake, youll die. But back on the road, he was still thinking about the woman. Enjoy unlimited access to all of our incredible journalism, in print and digital. Commerce was interrupted by Pancho Villa and his bandits, bringing John J. Pershing and his troops to establish a cavalry post there in 1916. question. I think that's the biggest thing that's How Florence ButtNot Her SonLaunched the H-E-B Empire, H-E-Bs True Texas BBQ Restaurant Is Slipping, Jimmy Carters Peanut-and-Egg Taco Made Quite the Impression on San Antonians. At first, we only knew the buyer by his online auction nameLawDude. Dallas sold the statue for $1.4 million in June after the City Council decided to auction it off. Whether you want to go horseback riding, golfing, hiking, or rafting on the Rio Grande, Lajitas Resort can put something together for you. Still, in a larger sense the buyer and his intentions dont really matter. Anglo-Americans first arrived around the time of the Mexican war. When he decided to sell, Smith, a 54-year-old Austin-based telecommunications tycoon, showed up unannounced and unknown, stepping out of his helicopter just before the auction began to buy Lajitas on a whim for $4.25 million. Your News. And the people. It's a place where many have long come to get away from material excess Yes the resort offers weddings and other special events. Lajitas is also somewhat famous for having a drunk goat named Clay Henry for a mayoryes, you read that correctly! He said his condition was a recent development. This desert golf resort has breathtaking views that make it hard to believe that it is in our own backyard! it made people feel nervous," she said. In 2010, he bought the 3,500-acre BootJack Ranch near Pagosa Springs, Colorado, for $46.5 million. He married Amy Hudson on June 3, 2010, in Dallas. Patricia Sharpe writes a regular restaurant column, Pats Pick, for Texas Monthly. Pershing once pursued Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa. It closed temporarily in 1910 and reopened six years later. But we also know that they expect more than Kelloggs and Minute Maid. Our resort in West Texas is set among . 6 IMPORTANT TIPS FOR VISITING THE BIG BEND. [2][6] He served as executive vice-president Cornerstone Natural Gas from 1989 to 1990, and as president and CEO from 1993 to 1996. contracted with Edwin Leslie, president and CEO of Houston-based Ivey can speak to that loss with singular authority. The three-hundred-yard walk to dinner that night was unlit and took me through a construction pit, and the meal for me and my friend at the gourmet Ocotillo was decent but blandthe venison chop, snapper filet, and rattlesnake cake all tasted like their sauce. On Friday morning, after eating breakfast and making sure the empty and spiritual. "Now I've got to go back to a different world," he said. The runway airport has full 100LL and Jet A fuel, complimentary tiedowns down services and offers transportation to the resort. For Admittedly the place was in bankruptcy, but it was still open and promising no drop in service. For more flight If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. Carmichael, California, United States. His ambition grew ever more glorious by the day: eight hundred residential lots of two acres or less, some selling for as much as $1 million, undeveloped; two championship golf courses, not desert-style, with grass growing only on greens and tees, but with a lush wall-to-wall carpet that would need a million gallons of water a day to stay green in summer months; an RV park with $100,000 slips for $500,000 motor homes; a 36,000-square-foot spa; four fancy restaurants; an amphitheater seating three thousand; an equestrian center; a hunting club. People who drive out here have prepared themselves for the remoteness, said one stately desert spiritualist who asked not to be named. And You Thought Feral Hogs Were Bad. And a federal judge approved the sale of Lajitas earlier this Its previous owner, Austin multimillionaire Steve Smith, lavished $100 million to turn the property into an exclusive refuge for the rich, with an 18-hole bentgrass golf course, upscale restaurants, old-world bar, 92 luxury rooms and Mayor Clay Henry, a beer-drinking goat. Dallas businessman Kelcy Warren believes he can. The town hadnt changed a whit when he got out of college and took a job with new owner Mischer in 1977, except for the recent introduction of electricity and a regular telephone line. When the mines in nearby Terlingua closed in the 1940s, though, Lajitas also became a ghost town, with an estimated population of 4. In 1986 he sold his Huntsville-based restaurant chain, Tinsleys Chicken and Rolls, and made millions, and he used part of that haul to put a house on the river just upstream from Lajitas. He bought a CD from her and promised A skeet range was put in that had shooters firing over the bike trail. A post office was established at Lajitas in 1904 and remained in operation until 1939. [26][27], "Kelcy" redirects here. The resort is currently owned by EPGolf LLC. [2][3][4][6] He has been the co-chairman and co-CEO of Energy Transfer Partners since 2007. In nearly every article on Lajitas that ran in the early Smith years, he gave some variant of a quote he gave to me. UT Dallas is paying students to get vaccinated. In June 2003, Texas Golfer sent a writer to stay at Lajitas for what would be a cover story for the monthly magazine. said Thursday aboard his private jet, flying over the desert and Davis Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. The Kolaches of West, Texas (Bakeries + Beyond), 13 Useful Tips for Visiting the Alamo in San Antonio, How to Visit the Eiffel Tower in Paris, TX (+ Photos & FAQ), 10 Great Texas Gulf Coast RV Parks (Beach Trip Ideas), 10+ Tips for Round Top, TX Shopping Trips (Antiques Fair Advice! The gas pumps were gone, as were the willow leaves and goat-pen wire. Hundreds of trees, including pears and plums that had no business being in the desert, were ordered before there was a plan to plant them and then planted before there was a way to water them. in the spare beauty of borderlands.