The Rape of Lajitas

It isn’t often that I post an entry that touches home with me in a disgusted negative way.  Please accept my apology for this one.  The town of Lajitas lies about 17 miles west of Terlingua on the river road.  The only reason the town came into being is because of the old Lajitas trading post.  It was the center of commerce next to the river for a hundred years serving the locals on both sides of the river.   If you have ever bought Clay Henry the beer drinking goat a cold one you know how special the old adobe building really was.  I have spent a few cold night around the fire outside listening to cowboys who have come in for a couple of cold beers, play a guitar and sing range songs.  It was just one of those places.  

And now?  I am aware that development is in the same box with death and taxes.  It’s inevitable.  But I will also maintain that development must always embrace and respect the past.  What happened to the old Lajitas trading post is criminal.  A ritzy development company purchased the surrounding property and the trading post for a hotel/golf course development.  I have nothing against golf.  I have even chilly dipped a few divots myself but there is a responsible way to do things.  The Black Jack Crossing golf development decided the old Lajitas trading post was a better golf cart barn and halfway house than what it always used to be which was the historic cement that held a region together.   No more interaction from two nations, no more Clay Henry, no more songs around a warm fire.  All destroyed by greed.  In my view it makes the situation worse that they left part of the building and had the nerve to put an historic marker on it.  Right next to the EZ GO 300 battery power hook up cables.  

There has to be a give and take with nature and history.  The needs of the many have to be balanced with the needs of the few or so says the pointy eared dude in Star Trek.  It is never more true than in Lajitas.  The green of the golf course just doesn’t fit in a place meant to be wild and remote.  It never has and it never will.  It’s just my opinion and I could be wrong......but I’m not.