FORT STOCKTON, TX 9-19-2017

We are camped at Hilltop RV Park overlooking our kingdom from 3,100 feet.  When we first checked in, the sky to the west was evil-looking, like a black atom bomb was going off.  Jim, the proprietor, told us not to worry, those storms never hit his park.  And indeed, it did not.  Leaving ten raindrops behind, the storm said, “Adios” and continued on its way south and east.  Instead, a refreshing, cool breeze swept across our camp offering relief from the heat and humidity of recent weeks.

Don't fly into this.

Sculpture up on the hill in
Fort Stockton

Settlers traveling west to Mexico and California in the transportation-du-jour, horses, wagons and stage coaches, came upon two things here:  hostile Indians and a refreshing water supply at Comanche Springs.  A line of defense to protect pioneers from Indian violence was established and Fort Stockton was one of these.  This was in 1858.  However, this original post slightly south of the current town, was abandoned at the onset of the Civil War.  Two years after the Civil War was ended, Col. Edward Hatch re-established Fort Stockton at its current location and it was occupied by the 9^th Cavalry regiment.  Col. Hatch was a white guy but his soldiers were black, those were the rules back then.  Newly-freed black men were searching for security and stable jobs and the military was one way to obtain both.  The Indians were bemused by the appearance of the black soldiers and called them, “Buffalo Soldiers,” because their dark skin color and tight curly hair was, in their minds, reminiscent of the head of the buffalo.  The Buffalo Soldiers proved themselves with discipline, courage and bravery and made their mark upon history.  By the 1880s, the threat from the Comanche Indians had faded and Fort Stockton was abandoned in 1886.  Three of the original officers’ quarters and the original guard house still stand and some other buildings have been reconstructed on the original foundations, including the kitchen and a barracks.

Guard house - Fort Stockton

Rob in the barracks at Ft. Stockton

Annie Riggs and her piano

Limestone quarried from the nearby hills and adobe bricks (baked grass and mud) were the primary construction materials in the 1800s.  The historic buildings in Fort Stockton that were built from these two materials have withstood the tests of weather and time.  One of these is the Riggs Hotel.  Eight year old Annie Frazier, her dad and mom and six siblings traveled west, arrived and settled in this area in the mid-1800s.  Annie was an independent little wench.  She married a guy named James Johnson and had six kids with him but that union didn’t suit her.  She divorced him, something that was almost unheard of in those days, a pioneer in more ways than one.  Later, she married Barney Riggs and had four kids with him.  That marriage and relationship didn’t go so well, either and Annie divorced him, too.  He was a troublesome person and got himself shot and died without a will so Annie got the estate.  With it, she purchased and fixed up the Koehler Hotel (the cost was $4,750) and opened for business.  She was a shrewd businesswoman and ran a tight ship and they said if you got out of line, she just happened to be packing under her pretty apron.  Don’t piss the lady off, that’s what I’m sayin!’  The 13-room hotel was a big success because it was safe and comfortable.  Cooler than most buildings, it had two-foot thick adobe walls, 14-foot high ceilings and had been built on a piece of higher ground.  The screen doors to the rooms opened out onto a porch of wood planks that surrounded a pretty interior courtyard.  Annie did a lot of the work around the hotel and most of the cooking.  Many of the furnishings (her piano, for example, and an iron bed frame she had purchased in 1900) and the kitchen utensils and implements on display were hers:  the wood stove, a clothes iron, a waffle iron, toaster, butter churn and ice cream maker, among other things.

Reception desk at the Riggs Hotel

Annie bought this electric stove
in 1922.  It still works.

Courtyard at the Riggs Hotel

Rob at the Riggs Hotel

You may want to have your picture taken beside the (second) biggest roadrunner in the world in Fort Stockton.  It used to be the biggest but somebody built one a few inches taller just recently in Las Cruces, NM.  Some people have too much time on their hands.  Anyway, I’ve learned as much as I can about Fort Stockton.  Wednesday, September 20, we move along to Las Cruces.

Lindy likes roadrunners!

Roadrunners like Roberto!