People of the Llano Estacado
The Llano Estacado is more than farmers, ranchers, and oilmen. Hispanics, Indians, Blacks, and Asians have also played a role in West Texas. The stories of everyone who has interacted with this unique landscape are important. We will continue to add to these essays, and if a reader wants to know more about a certain group we would love suggestions for topics for new essays.
There are many features of modern life on the Llano Estacado are common to all residents. Stories of the oilfield are a separate subset of this section. What do we see as we go about our daily lives as Llaneros? This grouping of essays strive to give any reader anywhere in the world a “feel” for life today in our home bioregion.
Stories and contributions of African Americans
- Many early day ranches in west Texas had black cowboys
- Many blacks joined the Seminole Indians in Florida and then became soldiers in Texas for the U.S. Army
Stories and contributions of Asian Americans
Stories and contributions of Mexican-Americans
Historical stories
- Indians and Hispanic relations
- Blue Nun of the Concho River
- Introductions by the Spanish to southwestern horticulture
- West Texas when it was part of Northern New Spain
- Spanish fought Apaches near Pecos
- Manuel Musquiz of the Davis Mountains
- Mexican Americans in the Confederate Army in the Civil War
- Lagunas Sabinas and the Ciboleros
- Charlie Goodnight and Jose Piedad Tafoya
- The role of traders as news carriers
- Lagunas de los lobos locos part 1
- Lagunas de los lobos locos part 2
- A meeting 129 years ago
- Torres Brothers of Fort Stockton
- The Women of the Mexican Revolution
- Mexican Immigration to the Llano Estacado
- Mexican Immigration due to the Green Revolution
- The stories of El Bulto
- Tacinques
- The greatest frontiersman of all time – Don Pedro Vial
- The history of one playa -- from Comanchero days to today
- Los Comanches – A Genizaro Christmas tradition on the upper Pecos River
- According to the folktale “la lechuza” a barn owl can be a witch
- The story of an adobe structure mentioned in an archaeological report
Mexican American Cultural Aspects of the modern Llano Estacado
- The two best novels of the Llano Estacado (Anaya and Kelton)
- Descansos
- Cultural Conflict on the Llano Estacado
- Rasquache
- La Virgen
- Dia de los Muertos
- Curanderismo
- On a cold winter day, the ghosts of tlatoleros are on the wind
- Everybody is from somewhere – the story of an immigrant couple
Stories and Contributions of American Indians
- Hunting Mammoths
- Ice Age Woman
- Maljamar pithouse
- Hispanics and Indians
- Sabeata, a famous Jumano
- The Blue Nun of the Concho River
- Jumano Apaches
- Ipa of the Lipan Apache
- Bull Creek and Comanche Daily Life
- On a cold winter day, the ghosts of tlatoleros are on the wind
- Comanche Burrowing Owl Story
- Buffalo Ecology (and Comanche buffalo medicine)
- Pictographs at Paint Rock
- A meeting 129 years ago
- Herman Lehmann and the Comanches and Apaches
- Lone Wolf Mountain
- Lipan Apache captive
- Magoosh, the Lipan Apache
- Magoosh’s dilemma #1
- Magoosh’s dilemma #2
- Magoosh and the Mountain Lion
- Magoosh in the Guadalupe Mountains
- Meeting at Willow Springs (version 1)
- Meeting at Willow Springs (version 2)
- Meeting at Willow Springs (version 3)
- Lost shaman in Carlsbad Caverns
- Mescalero 4th of July
- Modern Sweat Lodge
- Council of the Animals
- Sabeata was the most influential man of West Texas in the late 1600s
- Bats give purpose to a Wild Kiowa-Apache Woman
- The Comanche War Trail was the result of the politics of Mexico
- Indians of the Jornada-Mogollon culture on the Llano Estacado – 1100-1300 A.D.
The ranching and farming life
- Women in ranching
- Ranching is more than cows
- Big spreads
- Old time lingo
- Charlie Goodnight
- Charlie Goodnight and Tafoya
- Charlie Goodnight and the Prairie Chickens
- Cowboy folktales
- Early day farming and ranching along the Colorado River
- Cotton farmers
- Sheepranching
- Ozona Barnhart Trap
- High lonesome draw and teaching history
- Ranching at Stiles
- Best Novels of the Llano Estacado (Kelton and Anaya)
- Brush Control
- Windmills
- Termites
- Pronghorns
- Winter storms
- Hailstorm near Ozona
- Camping on a ranch near Ozona
- Lone Wolf Mountain
- Ranchers and Quail
- Ranchers and Drought
- Africanized bees
- Nickel Creek Café
- Goldsmith ranching
- Nature tourism and the x-bar ranch
- Nature tourism and the Mott Creek Ranch
- Nature tourism and the Windmill Ranch preserve
- Education and the Mott Creek Ranch
- West Texas’s first energy boom – prairie coal
- Feral hogs are a part of the modern West Texas landscape
- Cochran County was the last frontier of Texas
- The Flache-White Ranch | Photoessay
- Tipis, wickiups, chozas, pithouses, and jacales – the primitive architecture of West Texas
- Ranching the Holistic Resource Management way is good for the land | Related Photo Essay
- Charles Goodnight saved an incompetent commander on the Llano Estacado in 1862
Oilfield Stories
- Goldsmith
- Goldsmith revisited
- Oilwell pad ecology
- Oilcamp memories
- Penwell
- The oilfield’s changing landscape
Modern life on the Llano Estacado
- Music styles originated on the Llano Estacado
- Murals in West Texas
- West Texas Architecture
- Metal Art
- Boom and bust cycle of West Texas economy
- Changes at MaryNeal
- Trends in the Exurban Landscape
- The Ecology of Development
- Midland and Odessa need Greenbelt parks
- Bringing back a brother
- Roadrunners are a Llanero icon
- Buffalo are a Llanero icon
- Rattlesnakes (another Llanero icon) are not Evil
- Mojave Rattlers are not on the Llano Estacado #1
- Mojave Rattlers are not on the Llano Estacado #2
- Town Life – Geckos and Anoles
- Town Life – Tree Squirrels
- Box turtles in the yard
- Water features in the landscape
- The Oaks of the urban forest
- Birdwatching the urban forest
- Peregrine falcon downtown
- Ecology of the edge of town on the way to work
- Trash Ecoystem
- County dogs
- Caliche pits
- Windbreaks
- Windmills
- Graveyards and decoration day
- Consolidated schools
- Arrowhead hunting
- Nature Tourism
- On the road in West Texas #1 Midland to Patricia
- On the road in West Texas #2 Patricia to Andrews
- On the road in West Texas #3 Shafter Lake
- On the road in West Texas #4 Coke County
- On the road in West Texas #5 Gyppy Soil
- On the road in West Texas #6 4th of July in Andrews
- On the road in West Texas #7 Lizard Races in Lovington, New Mexico
- On the road in West Texas #8 The ghost town of Fort Chadbourne
- On the road in West Texas #9 The fort of Fort Chadbourne
- On the road in West Texas #10 Fort Concho Living History Days
- On the road in West Texas #11 The importance of Fort Lancaster
- On the road in West Texas #12 Camping in the Sanddunes
- On the road in West Texas #13 Paint Rock pictographs
- On the road in West Texas #14 Paint Rock pictographs revisited
- Small town schools are great places for students to learn
- A fine young male, fresh and brightly colored and very handsome
- Pioneering in the city – adventures in urban ecology
- Open Preserve Day at Independence Creek Preserve
- Gone Native Photo Diaries – The Sibley Nature Center promotes water conservation. This set of photoessays takes you through a year of a garden that was watered twice in 2006.
- Early February, 2006 scenes
- Early March scenes
- Scenes from March 29-30 and April 2
- Scenes from April 7-8
- Scenes from April 15
- Scenes from April 19 and April 21
- Scenes from April 23
- Scenes from April 26
- Scenes from May 4
- Scenes from May 23
- Scenes from June 11
- Scenes from June 21
- Scenes from
- Scenes from August
- Scenes from September
- Scenes from October
- Scenes from November
- Scenes from December
- January 2007 Icestorm
- Easter 2007 Snowstorm
- To navigate the present, look back at the other times the world changed
- Midland’s Urban Forest – a dynamic ecosystem always changing
- Stalking the wild – daytripping with a digital camera
- West Texans work together to promote Heritage Tourism
- The passalong plant Winter Jasmine is more than the first bloom of spring
- 2008 – the worst year ever for wildfires