Elephant Tusk - Big Bend NP TX
Posted by: Groundspeak Premium Member Benchmark Blasterz
N 29° 10.125 W 103° 08.936
13R E 680017 N 3228099
The Elephant Tusk, which the 1940 WPA writers also knew as Indianola Peak in Big Bend
Waymark Code: WMV0WX
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 02/04/2017
Published By:Groundspeak Premium Member NW_history_buff
Views: 1

The Elephant Tusk is a mountain that juts out like an Elephant's tusk -- we guess. I guess our imaginations were not engaged at that moment.

The waymark coordinates are for the spot on Black Gap Road 5.1 miles from Glenn Springs (located on Glenn Sorings Road) where the WPA writers bumped along in the 1930s. You can see the Elephant tusk well from here.

From Texas: A Guide to the Lone Star State:

"Westward, at 24.9 m., the route leads directly toward the southern face of the Chisos. Ahead at 25.8 m. is ELEPHANT TUSK or INDIANOLA PEAK (5,240 alt.).

Close on the left is TALLEY MOUNTAIN (3,800 alt.), locally called Cow Heaven. The range on Talley Mountain is excellent, and grassy valleys are heavily stocked with a good grade of Herefords. The cluster of adobe and frame buildings around the ranch house of Aaron Greene is GLENN SPRINGS, 30 m. (2,606 alt., 10 pop.) (accommodations by day or week; spring water). The ranch house is set in green grounds which, in the desert, make a veritable oasis.

Glenn Springs served as a subpost of Camp Marfa during the Mexican border troubles from 1910 to 1918. On May 5, 1916, the store was raided and looted by about 200 Mexicans under Lieutenant-Colonel Natividad Alvarez. The buildings which figured in this episode are just beyond the ranch house, to the rear. Three U. S. soldiers and one boy, a lad named Compton, were killed. W. K. Ellis, then the ranch owner, who had an artificial leg, fled with his wife to the rugged shelter of CHILICOTAL MOUNTAIN (4,104 alt.), which overlooks Glenn Springs on the north. "
Book: Texas

Page Number(s) of Excerpt: 627

Year Originally Published: 1940

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Benchmark Blasterz visited Elephant Tusk - Big Bend NP TX 12/27/2016 Benchmark Blasterz visited it