The Persimmon Gap Stores & Schools -- Persimmon Gap Visitor Center, Big Bend NP TX
N 29° 39.603 W 103° 10.398
13R E 676793 N 3282512
A sign of history inside the Persimmon Gap Visitor Center at Big Bend National Park preserves the history of the local stores and schools
Waymark Code: WMV06A
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 01/31/2017
Views: 0
An exhibit inside the Persimmon Gap Visitor Center shows how folks lived in this remote area from the 1900s-1940s. This sign is part of that exhibit, which preserves the history of the area as follows:
"THE PERSIMMON GAP STORES AND SCHOOLS
[photo]
This is the first Persimmon Gap School as viewed from the porch of the house.
Bill Cooper Sr. was operating the Persimmon Gap Ranch, and being a gregarious fellow who love to visit folks, he felt that if he opened the store, people would stop by to talk. Eventually his family built five different stores. The first Cooper store was built in 1929 and stood just a little north and west of the current entrance station.
His five children needed to go to school. At that time in Texas it took 8 children to establish a need for school, so Mr. Cooper hired a man who had four children and the first Persimmon Gap School opened.
A year or so later, the Coopers moved their enterprise into a substantial building they built of rock just south of the intersection of the Harte Ranch Road and the highway. Half of the building was devoted to the fourth Cooper store, and the other half was the family's living quarters. (See photo above) this building was demolished by NPS.
In the 1930s, the Coopers fell on hard times and Mr. Cooper was foreclosed on and lost this land. However, because “the bank didn’t own the buildings,” he moved them, including the school, about one mile south onto land that he had leased from the state. That became the third “Cooper’s Store” and the second school.
San Vicente School where Jimmie Hill Cooper taught school from 1937-1940. Here’s a photo of Ms. Cooper in her class (right).
San Vicente school has been in many locations in its history. The pictured building (above) was located at Dugout Wells, but for a few years San Vicente school was at Persimmon Gap.
Jimmie Hill Cooper taught at this (3rd) schoolhouse which was built by Bill Cooper Jr in 1940. It was located just south of Nine Points Draw in Brewster County, 5 miles south of Persimmon Gap."
Group that erected the marker: National Park Service
URL of a web site with more information about the history mentioned on the sign: [Web Link]
Address of where the marker is located. Approximate if necessary:
Persimmon Gap Visitor Center
Big Bend National ParkTX
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