Persimmon Gap -- Big Bend NP TX - American Guide Series on Waymarking.com

From Texas: A Guide to the Lone Star State:

"PERSIMMON GAP, 41.5 m. (2,971 alt.), is a pass in the Santiago Range. The Sierra Del Caballo Muerto (5,647 alt.), (L), is locally called by its English translation, the Dead Horse Mountains. In this range are the real badlands of the Big Bend, where water is almost unobtainable except in tinajas (natural rock depressions which catch rain water).

Through this gap came the Comanche Trail, blazed by raiding Indians from the South Plains on their way to Mexico. It extended south from Horsehead Crossing on the Pecos River, past Comanche Springs (Fort Stockton), to the Comanche Crossing of the Rio Grande. Pieces of petrified trees, said by geologists to be two hundred million years old, have been used in landscaping this spot. This area is a natural botanical garden, containing many plants of the Big Bend region: lecheguilla, sotol, creosote, cenizo, huisache, all-thorn, guayule, black-brush, cacti of many varieties, and wild persimmon.

From this vantage point is obtained the first good view of the distant Chisos Mountains (average alt. 7,000). High, many-colored, and hazy, they bulk in a serrated mass on the horizon to the southwest. Their misty appearance, due to an atmospheric haze, is given as one interpretation of their name that it is derived from an Apache word meaning ghostly. Another possible derivation is from the Comanche word for echo. The Chisos are part of the Rocky Mountain system; they cover approximately 40 square miles and are noted for their vivid coloring blue, red, purple, and yellow and for their ruggedness. In long-past geologic ages they were thrust up through sedimentary limestone beds, and today present a cluster of major and minor peaks which dominate the tip of the Big Bend. Erosion from this uplift has covered the adjacent desert with rubble; the limestone is not again exposed until it outcrops in the walls of three great canyons which the Rio Grande has carved for itself through intervening rock ranges.

Persimmon Gap is the northernmost entrance to the proposed Big Bend National Park of Texas, a triangular tract embracing approximately 736,000 acres enclosed by the big bend of the Rio Grande. This park was authorized by Congress in 1935, subject to the vesting of title to all lands in this park area on United States soil ; and until such title shall have passed and administration funds are made available, no definite development plans can be carried out. It is proposed to invite
the Mexican government to cooperate by establishing a park on the Mexican side, the two areas to form an international park.

COOPER'S STORE (R), 42.7 m., has gas, oil, water, cold drinks, and
lunch supplies."

The waymark coordinates are for the Big Bend National Park Visitor Center at the south end of Persimmon Gap.

The entrance sign to the park is at the north end of Persimmon Gap.

Persimmon Gap is a long winding pass through the Santiago mountains into the vastness of Big Bend National Park. There's not one spot where you can see the gap, rather it veers and winds between mountains and has been a well-trod path by humans, animals, Native Americans, pioneers, and now tourists for thousands of years.

Book: Texas Page Number(s) of Excerpt: 623 Year Originally Published: 1940

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