Essays

Moseying: Living La Vida Llanero

In memory of Ed Dwyer, the Sibley Nature Center looks forward
November 4, 2009

How and when did the Sibley Nature Center begin? The trail was built in 1980, and the building was finished Christmas of 1986. With all the new construction occurring at the Sibley Nature Center, looking back is important.  Lots of folks played a role, and we would like to thank everybody that had a hand!

In the late 1970s Essie Haisler (at that time teaching at Alamo Junior High School) and Billy Gilbreath (then teaching at Lee High School) attended a science education conference in Colorado and one of the field trips visited an outdoor learning area. Upon their return they begin mentioning to people they met that they would like to see Midland have an area set aside for students to have the chance to explore the West Texas landscape.

Eventually they met with Dick Hagelstein, then the District Conservationist with the Midland Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD). Mr. Hagelstein mentioned the idea to create a nature trail to the board of directors of the district, who approved the idea. Meetings were then held with the City of Midland. The City of Midland suggested the “wild” part of Hogan Park. Meetings were also held with the science coordinator for the Midland Independent School District, who agreed to recommend that teachers utilize the trail when it was built.

In 1980, the City of Midland agreed to hire an intern to lay out the trail, to create a brochure, and to build a kiosk at the entrance to the trail. The City also agreed to surface the trail with caliche “chat” (ground up caliche rock). I was hired as the intern. That fall, students began visit the trail. Gilbreath and fellow teacher Dick Ledbetter brought their students out.

In 1982 I taught a continuing education course at Midland College about West Texas wildlife, taking field trips to local ranches and to the trail at Hogan Park. One of the class members was Robert Bechtel, a member of the Potts-Sibley Foundation board of directors, who recognized that it would be a benefit to the community to build an interpretative center. After discussing it with his fellow board members, the Foundation contributed $50,000 to the Midland SWCD towards that goal, and informed the Midland Soil and Water Conservation District board of directors that if they would match that sum, the Potts-Sibley Foundation would match it again.

Ed Dwyer, then chairman of the board of the Midland SWCD, got to work, meeting with officials from Tenneco, Arco, Exxon, Texaco, and Oxy-USA oil companies, the El Paso Natural Gas Company, the Pevehouse and Scharbauer cattle companies, and the Helen Greathouse, Abell Hangar, and Fasken Foundations, and Harriet Faudree.  After Mr. Dwyer raised the matching money, the Potts-Sibley Foundation matched the sum.

Mr. Dwyer unexpectedly passed away. The Midland SWCD board waited a couple of years, until the oil boom of the early 1980s had completely busted, and when the prices were right had the building constructed in 1986. The building was named for the Sibley family of Fort Stockton.  The auditorium at the Sibley Nature Center is named for Mr. Dwyer. A bronze plaque honoring him is now above the entry door to the room. His leadership and ability to convince donors that a nature center was an asset to Midland was invaluable.

The then chairman of the Midland SWCD, J.D. Crawford, led the board through the design and construction process. The Midland ISD science coordinator arranged for a team of 6th grade teachers to create a curriculum for 6th graders, and I organized a volunteer team (Essie Haissler, Barbara Larson, Ernie Johnson, JoAnn and Don Merritt, Lorene Woodruff) to meet the students.  Within a few years, school visitations increased so I was hired as education director, again with the assistance of the Potts-Sibley Foundation. Mr. Hagelstein retired from the Soil Conservation Service (now the Natural Resources Conservation Service) and became the director of the Sibley Nature Center.

In 2005, with the retirement of Mr. Hagelstein as the director of the Sibley Nature Center, the Midland SWCD relinquished management of the Sibley Nature Center to a new 501c3. This board of directors has done an amazing job guiding the facility to a new level, resulting in more staff and more programming, including outreach to schools all over the region, teacher training, assisting the regional parks run by Texas Parks and Wildlife and Texas Historical Commission, and a website that receives 2500+ hits from separate IP addresses every week, and now the new construction occurring at the nature center. Mr. Dwyer would be amazed!