La Harmonica

Comfort Castle Location: Fort Davis, Texas

Adventure Location: Near Castolon, Big Bend NP, Texas

Written 3-28-2011

The morning started cold at 44 degrees F. A short morning walk to check out the river was taken with the benefit of a horse on the Mexico side seeing me. It whinnied out a greeting and got a wave in return.

Very close to across the main road from the Cottonwood campground is a historic site. The history is well explained with the sign at the entrance. A short walk up a hill brings you to the store area and its three buildings. The have obviously been reworked but are still neat to see. The interior is one big room as was expected. A surprise to me in the historical buildings is all the poured concrete floors and some walls. That much cement must have been a real pain to haul out here in wagons pulled by critters. There was an old rusty steel pipe running off into the brush from the store building. That seemed odd so an attempt to follow it was made. Using my famous dead reckoning as my feet dodged in and out and around the brush and trees this cistern suddenly appeared in the brush. As my exploring continued a small building appeared. Close examination of it through a window identified it as a pump house. Scattered all through this area are remnants of when it was irrigated crop land. But growing crops on a flood plain that floods and changes every few years makes it hard to continue a profitable operation. The last big flood here was in 2008 and even Cottonwood campground was flooded.

The big event was the return to the Truck. The white horse from across the river had come to visit. It must have been used to getting a treat because it looked very expectantly at me for a good while. Then it headed on down the road at a gentle clip clop. It did not have horse shoes on it. horse pic A volunteer said that there are several horses and cows that wander back and forth from Mexico to the park. The horse looks like it is eating well to me. This was a nice adventure in the trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM.