Pershing once pursued Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa. Lajitas Golf Resort accepts credit cards. There was, in fact, a large contingent of resort employees in La Kiva that night, all of them transplants from around the United States but for one young woman who had grown up in the area. been a thorn in the side of the community," Mr. Leslie said. At some point in 2006 Smith decided to stop pouring his own fortune into Lajitas. When. He gave generously to local fire and EMS departments. It was neat and comfortable, but somewhere in the two rooms there should have been a desk, and the television should have provided a clear picture and more than nineteen channels. LAJITAS GOLF RESORT - 236 Photos & 94 Reviews - Yelp It is located on a bluff overlooking the Rio Grande at San Carlos ford of the old Comanche Trail, in the northern part of the Chihuahuan Desert in southwestern Brewster County. [18], Warren donated $6 million to Governor Rick Perry's presidential campaign. A post office was established at Lajitas in 1904 and remained in operation until 1939. The resort couldn't turn a 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. Smith and a group of hastily scraped-together investors. bankruptcy. During sudden storms, their power will go out, and theyll be trapped wherever they are, the roads made impassable by flashing creeks trying to find the Rio Grande. LAJITAS GOLF RESORT - 236 Photos & 94 Reviews - Yelp Your News. Whats Up With All the Kangaroos on the Loose in Texas? 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. If you click through a link on Lone Star Travel Guide, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Carmichael, California, United States. The resorts 250 workers made Lajitas the largest employer in South County, and it paid nearly 30 percent of the taxes for the schools in Terlingua. Visit hotel website. Only a few home sites ever sold. ), 7+ Great Girls Trips in Texas (Weekend Getaway Ideas! "Lajitas" translates to "little flat rocks" in Spanish. And a federal judge approved the sale of Lajitas earlier this Asian money. Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. 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. City documents identified Holmes, but he hadnt hinted at what hed do with his new hunk of Alexander Phimister Proctor-made metal. Dennis smiled and said something that hinted roughly at the wonders of clean canvases, bottomless toolboxes, and endless lumber supplies, and then excused himself to go to the restroom. [5][24] He also owns an 8,000-acre ranch near Cherokee, Texas,[5] the 20,000-acre Lajitas Golf Resort and Spa in Lajitas, Texas,[25] and a private island near Roatn, Honduras. Now $179 (Was $201) on Tripadvisor: Lajitas Golf Resort, Lajitas. It is a wildly beautiful natural region, with a complex and fascinating history. Pamplin and his partners invested $25 million to expand the resort adding a new hotel and increasing the number of golf holes from 9 to 18. By the mid-1980s, Lajitas became a resort town with 15 businesses serving 50 people. They were then removed from the area by the Apache and Comanche tribes in the 18th and 19th centuries. It is named for his son. This desert golf resort has breathtaking views that make it hard to believe that it is in our own backyard! Warren is chief executive officer and chairman of Energy Transfer Partners. Chip Gaines Bought Larry McMurtrys Historic Texas Bookstore. He says I hear once a week or more, from people I dont even know, who tell me how much the trading post meant to them and how sad they are that its gone, he said. If you make a purchase through one of these links, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Warren's gift was the largest, giving him naming rights. CANDELILLA CAFE, Lajitas - Restaurant Reviews, Photos - Tripadvisor Admittedly the place was in bankruptcy, but it was still open and promising no drop in service. Holmes did not return a call about the donation. surrounding land that include an old mercury mining town and hunting Lajitas resort avoids foreclosure with bankruptcy court filing As an Amazon Associate, Lone Star Travel Guide earns from qualifying purchases. Yelp users havent asked any questions yet about. Any idea Dennis came up with was worth a try. The resort features an 18-hole golf course a luxury hotel and a variety of amenities and activities for guests to enjoy. Faces age faster in the desert, the skin browning and creasing and toughening up in ways that city and suburban dwellers dont have to worry about. Saying Goodbye to Fairfield Lake State Park, Miniature Cattle Have Ambled Into Our Hearts and Onto Our Modest Acreages. Fly Direct to Lajitas from Dallas or Houston. reprints, email [emailprotected], call 800-374-7985 or We also have an email out to Warren. Additionally, there were no televisions, the latter a rarity among communities in the decade. It was mounted on a pediment in the middle of the golf courses putting green on Thursday, according to Scott Beasley, who manages the course for Dallas-based WSB Resorts and Clubs. "Now I've got to go back to a different world," he said. [2], In the 1970s the community had one telephone, and newspapers were delivered one day later than their normal dates. I think he was just writing checks.. Lajitas Golf Resort - UPDATED 2023 Prices, Reviews - Tripadvisor Dallas businessman Kelcy Warren believes he can. Voted #1 Most Beautiful Golf Course in Texas Golf Magazine But about halfway through the meal, one of the guys, no doubt feeling that freewheeling mixture of margaritas and desert remove, commented to the waitress, Weve got a pool going to see if your tits are real or fake.. He bought a CD from her and promised Mountains to a 7,500-foot landing strip surrounded by scrub brush and If youre on a mountain out there and a cold front comes in, you could freeze and die, he said. We offer world class golf on our award Lajitas Golf Resort - The Ultimate Big Bend Experience [], To some drawing a golf flag may seem like a daunting task. ocotillo plants. The soul stays young, and that youth glows in the eyes, as lined as they may be. When I visited it in August and October, the trading post was dead. It was part of the borderland experience, and everyone got along fine. [7] The construction of the park cost about $90 million. 1,059 reviews. His state-of-the-art gray water filtration system created a wetlands area on the golf course that, along with a 64-acre sanctuary on the river, brought birds to the region not commonly found in the desert. The contraband would be returned at a reception when they arrived. Opponents saw it as an attempt to rewrite history. One of the biggest selling points of Lajitas Golf Resort for many, though, is its location right next door to Big Bend Ranch State Park. They talked about reopening the border crossing, reaching out That population boom influenced a boom in another town, just 13 miles away: Lajitas. February 2023 Reader Quiz: What Did You Learn? Ms. Ryan said the area is like a space station, big and H. W. McGuirk, the leading citizen of Lajitas from 1902 to 1917, operated the Lajitas Trading Post, farmed, and helped manage the Terlingua Mining Company. Located just east of Big Bend Ranch State Park, a visit to Lajitas, Texas may leave you wondering: is this a town or a resort? [3] After two replacements of the original Clay Henry, the trading post and stable where the actual mayor lived is now closed and they goat no longer resides there. Front Desk: (432) 424-5000 living in the rusted hull of a bus, near a dirt path leading down to They should be selling its history and its culture. She said, You guys are execs at Lajitas, arent you? When they acknowledged they were, she said, I cant wait to tell everybody what redneck assholes you are. The table went silent, and when she walked off, one of the guys followed her to the bar and asked her not to say anything. Voted #1 Course You Can Play in Texas The Dallas Morning News When the mines in nearby Terlingua closed in the 1940s, though, Lajitas also became a ghost town, with an estimated population of 4. That's who I want to be and I can't," he information click here If youve visited the popular Terlingua Ghost Town, youve no doubt heard about the mercury mining boom that led to the towns explosion in population in the early 20th century. And the beauty of that, as it related to Steve Smith, was the free rein Dennis had been given to create whatever he wanted. Lajitas Golf Resort is perfectly situated between the Big Bend National Park and the Big Bend State Park: it is the ultimate resort destination. Aug 2018 - Present4 years 8 months. If you take a plane, you just show up. All rights reserved. If you fall off a cliff, you will die. It was live-music night at La Kiva, the best of it played by a young female fiddle player from the Northeast whod put off grad school to take a job at Lajitas. Enjoy unlimited access to all of our incredible journalism, in print and digital. old-world bar, 92 luxury rooms and Mayor Clay Henry, a beer-drinking property, Mr. Warren plans a largely hands-off approach. But it also served as a gathering place for the areas whites, Mexicans, and Indians, none of whom batted an eye at the towns other prominent, permanent resident, an old man who refused to wear anything more than his underwear, in which he would daily pan for gold in the Rio Grande. Please see our, 15 Beautiful Hikes in Big Bend National Park, 7 Best Things to Do in Marathon, TX (+ Tips! As part of the contract, his son cleans up trash from the park once a month. Nobody really likes practicing their golf game. Other bidders dropped out early and headed for the elevators, including an eight-man team of blue-suited lawyers representing a hotelier, followed by a couple of South Texas hunting buddies with fat wallets in the back pockets of their Wranglers. Voted #4 Course You Can Play in Texas Golfweek Magazine. According to Beasley, the monument is a gift. The crossing was described as a smooth, rock bottom, and was best between Del Rio and El Paso. And the recollection of that night is one of the reasons there will be no pour-out on the porch for the death of Smiths vision. Young as he was, that was surprising, so when he returned, I asked him how somebody with such a hard time getting around wound up in a job as physically demanding as carpentry. On the one hand, hes wealthy and owns his own plane. 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. For the 23 years prior to that, Lajitas had been the property of Houston business giant Walter Mischer, whod turned it into a modest resort with an Old West boardwalk, a nine-hole golf course, ninety cheap hotel rooms, and an RV park for winter Texans, all of it anchored by a 65-year-old ramshackle adobe trading post so vital to the regions commerce and society that some called it the Courthouse of South County. question. since 2003 and hopes to remove the exclusivity from the resort. Born in Gladewater, Texas, Warren grew up in White Oak, Texas, the youngest of four sons of Hugh Brinson Warren and Bertie Lee Kirby. Though the Lajitas Resort dominates much of Lajitas today, you can still find many remnants of the original town of Lajitas aroundoften restored by the resort. for your away-from-it-all adventure. [4][5] The election included incumbent human mayor Tommy Steele, as well as a trading post wooden Indian named Kevin Zinter, and a dog named Buster. 750 North St.Paul St. The Last Resort - Texas Monthly Dallas Businessman, Kelcy Warren, Acquires the Bankrupt Lajitas Resort Mr. Warren, a Levis-jeans-and-cowboy-boot-wearing Texan from Lajitas Golf Resort has been welcoming Booking.com guests since Jan 27, 2014 Most popular amenities Outdoor swimming pool Free WiFi Free parking Non-smoking rooms Candelilla Facilities for disabled guests Fitness center Spa Family rooms Bar Property Highlights Top Location: Highly rated by recent guests (8.7) Free Parking Available On Site The Last Resort. [12] Before that, Lajitas had a school with 50 students in 1912. 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. I have stayed here several times before I knew who the owner was. He said his condition was a recent development. Checks were cashed and loans were made, and Ivey accepted payment in dollars, pesos, or by barter. Apart from teaching my students in class, we also go outside the four walls of the classroom to physically experience what was discussed in class. But back on the road, he was still thinking about the woman. Ms. Ryan told Mr. Warren she remembers years ago when the bar He then sold the land to Thomas V. Skaggs, who became successful in the Lajitas Wax Company, which sold candelilla wax. 1 (877) 525-4827. As he walked off I noticed that he was stooped and relying on a cane. I hope you have found some useful content on my site today. Our 27,000 acre Texas resort is famous for its solitude, natural beauty and rugged desert environment. When Lajitass marketing team suggested that all the resort needed to take off was a visitor with A-list celebrity credentials, one Tom Cruise or Tiger Woods, Terlingua just laughed. He married Amy Hudson on June 3, 2010, in Dallas. Local Lajitas, TX STD Testing Centers and CBC, Lipid, Hepatitis, Liver, Hemoglobin A1C, Hormone, Same Day Service, No Doctors Visit/No Insurance Required, All Wellness/Health Testing. Yelp users havent asked any questions yet about Lajitas Golf Resort. The course was designed by Lanny Wadkins. Lajitas resort avoids foreclosure with bankruptcy court filing. 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. She was all smiles when I met her, one more witness to the greatness of Lajitas. When I met him for a quick lunch in Alpine in October, his memories of the old store grew the conversation to two hours. And the heat beats anything foretold in Revelation. The decision-making rule of thumb so popular in modern businessthat managers should ask for forgiveness, not permissionwas taken to its untenable extreme. NYSE:ETP, By Paul Meyer, The Dallas Morning From 1996 to 2000, Warren served as a director of Crosstex Energy, Inc. and from 1993 to 1996, he served as president, chief operating officer and a director of Cornerstone Natural Gas, Inc. Warren has more than 25 years of business experience in the energy industry. [13], The TV miniseries, Streets of Laredo was also filmed in Lajitas. EL PASO (AP) - A West Texas resort billed by its owner as an exclusive desert getaway for the rich and famous filed for federal . Still, in a larger sense the buyer and his intentions dont really matter. Tel: 1-877-LAJITAS Unincorporated community in Texas, United States, "Old Cemetery In Lajitas, Texas, A Tiny Town That Abuts Big Bend National Park In Southwestern Brewster County, On A Bluff Overlooking The Rio Grande River In The Northern Part Of The Chihuahuan Desert", "Mayor Clay Henry III: A Word About the Mayor", "Clay Henry - Famous Beer-Drinking Dead Goat", "LAJITAS, TEXAS (414950), Period of Record Monthly Climate Summary", "Lajitas Resort: Why you better go now - El Paso Inc.: Publishers Column", "Death: Frank Q. Dobbs, producer, director and writer for television and movies", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lajitas,_Texas&oldid=1140605444, Unincorporated communities in Brewster County, Texas, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Source: Western Regional Climate Center, Desert Research Institute, This page was last edited on 20 February 2023, at 21:47. A Too many decisions were made in the creation of the new Lajitas by people who didnt seem to think very hard about what they were doing. When I asked a local sitting at the bar what he remembered of that story, she happened to be on the other side of me and interrupted, That was me! Shes still angry about it, and she ticked off the details as though it had happened the night before. He has one son, Klyde Warren. There were weeks of discussion leading up to the 13-1 Council vote on September 5, 2017, ending with it being taken down and stored. No stranger rode into town with his checkbook in his teeth to run up the bidding and take the place over. 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. Lajitas officially had a post office as early as 1901, but it did not become operational until McGuirk petitioned for its reestablishment in 1904. White Oak who also has a record label, has owned a home in Lajitas