Glenn Springs, Texas

Glenn Springs is an uninhabited place in the state of Texas, United States, which is of historical importance.[1] The Glenn Springs area was a natural spring providing water for Apache and Kiowa routing the Grand Indian Crossing passage at Boquillas. The Comanche tribes beseech the fresh water crossing on the Comanche Trail during their equine incursions from and to the Mexican Plateau, Sierra Madre Oriental, and the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt regions of Mexico.[2]

Glenn Springs, Texas
Ghost Town
Glenn Springs, Texas Location within Texas Show map of Texas Glenn Springs, Texas Glenn Springs, Texas (the United States) Show map of the United States
Coordinates: 29°09′40″N 103°08′51″W
Country	United States
State	Texas
County	Brewster
Elevation	2,447 ft (746 m)
Time zone	UTC-6 (Central (CST))
• Summer (DST)	UTC-5 (CDT)
ZIP codes	79834
Area code	432
GNIS feature ID	2034866

The rural settlement is located 11 miles (16 kilometers) south-southeast of the Panther Junction visitor center in what is now the Big Bend National Park, and is accessible only by high-clearance vehicle.[3] The National Park Service maintains a back-country campground at Glenn Springs.[4]

Military occupation

Glenn Springs was a military encampment, which was attacked by the troops of the Mexican General Pancho Villa on 5 May 1916, killing one civilian, three U.S. Army soldiers, and wounding several other troops.[5] The Glenn Springs Raid came 57 days after the famous attack on Columbus, New Mexico.

Wax Camp

During the Spanish Texas era, candelilla was harvested in the Chisos Mountains of the Trans-Pecos. The wax plant provided a malleable solid for candles used by the Spanish missions in Texas during Franciscans Catholic orders.[6]

In 1914, W.K. Ellis and C.D. Wood established a wax factory on the embankment of Glenn Springs employing a population in the mountainous Chihuahuan Desert region. By 1916, the candelillero factory consisted of a boiler room with tall smoke stacks, six large extraction vats, and a water storage system for the production of candelilla wax.[7]

References

1. Kohout, Martin Donell. "Glenn Springs, Tx". TSHA Handbook of Texas Online. Texas State Historical Association. Retrieved April 15, 2012.
2. "Comanche Trail - Marathon ~ Marker Number: 994". Texas Historic Sites Atlas. Texas Historical Commission. 1936.
3. National Park Service March 2000
4. "Primitive Roadside Campsites — Glenn Springs". U.S. National Park Service. U.S. Department of the Interior.
5. "Bandits' Victim Buried Here". New York Times. May 15, 1916. p. 3. Retrieved 18 April 2016.
6. Wright, O.M.I., Robert E. "Spanish Missions". TSHA Handbook of Texas Online. Texas State Historical Association.
7. "Wax Camps - History of Wax Making and Marketing". Texas Beyond History. University of Texas at Austin.

External links

• "Glenn Springs". National Park Service. U.S. Department of the Interior.