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50-516: Terlingua ( / t ər ˈ l ɪ ŋ ɡ w ə / tər- LING -gwə ) is a mining district and census-designated place (CDP) in southwestern Brewster County , Texas , United States. It is located near the Rio Grande and the villages of Lajitas and Study Butte, Texas , as well as the Mexican state of Chihuahua . The discovery of cinnabar , from which the metal mercury is extracted, in

100-441: A P. fremontii subspecies, but it was removed in 1977. P. fremontii is cultivated as an ornamental tree and riparian zone restoration tree. It is used in planting for wildlife food and shelter habitats , and ecological restoration , larger native plant and wildlife gardens , and natural landscaping projects, windbreaks, erosion control , and shade for recreation facilities, parks, and livestock. Frémont's cottonwood

150-471: A syenite intrusion . The mine included four principal shafts and two medium-sized furnaces. The mine was soon abandoned when water was encountered, flooding the works. The district accounted for most of the US quicksilver production at least through 1937, totaling almost 150,000 flasks. However, declining prices forced all of the mines to close by 1947. Terlingua first appeared as a census designated place in

200-624: A $ 50,000 loan from the Austin National Bank, the same year the company reported its first recovery with two retorts . Two more retorts were added in 1904 and production amounted to 200 flasks per month. In 1905, the company leased the Colquitt-Tigner 10-ton Scott furnace five miles away. In the same year, Perry hired Dr. William Battle Phillips (future director of the Texas Bureau of Economic Geology and president of

250-421: A CDP have no legal status and may not always correspond with the local understanding of the area or community with the same name. However, criteria established for the 2010 census require that a CDP name "be one that is recognized and used in daily communication by the residents of the community" (not "a name developed solely for planning or other purposes") and recommend that a CDP's boundaries be mapped based on

300-461: A population of at least 10,000. For the 1970 Census , the population threshold for "unincorporated places" in urbanized areas was reduced to 5,000. For the 1980 Census , the designation was changed to "census designated places" and the designation was made available for places inside urbanized areas in New England. For the 1990 Census , the population threshold for CDPs in urbanized areas

350-1251: Is a cottonwood (and thus a poplar ) native to riparian zones of the Southwestern United States and northern through central Mexico . It is one of three species in Populus sect. Aigeiros . The tree was named after 19th-century American explorer and pathfinder John C. Frémont . The tree is native to the Southwestern United States and Mexico. In the United States, the species can be found in California , Idaho , Nevada , Utah , Arizona , New Mexico , Texas , and Colorado . In Mexico, it can be found in Baja California , Baja California Sur , Sonora , Chihuahua , Coahuila , Nuevo León , México (state) , and Puebla . A riparian tree, it grows near streams, rivers, springs , seeps , wetlands , and well-watered alluvial bottomlands at elevations below 2,000 metres (6,600 ft) elevation. P. fremontii

400-405: Is a large tree growing from 12–35 m (39–115 ft) in height with a wide crown, with a trunk up to 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in) in diameter. The bark is smooth when young, becoming deeply fissured with whitish, cracked bark on old trees. The 3–7 cm (1.2–2.8 in) long leaves , are cordate (heart-shaped) with an elongated tip, with white veins and coarse crenate teeth along

450-502: Is within the Odessa College District for community college. This area has a large amount of sunshine year round due to its stable descending air and high pressure. The climate is similar to that of nearby Presidio . Census-designated place CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counterparts of incorporated places , such as self-governing cities , towns , and villages , for

500-654: The 1890 Census , in which the Census mixed unincorporated places with incorporated places in its products with "town" or "village" as its label. This made it confusing to determine which of the "towns" were or were not incorporated. The 1900 through 1930 Censuses did not report data for unincorporated places. For the 1940 Census , the Census Bureau compiled a separate report of unofficial, unincorporated communities of 500 or more people. The Census Bureau officially defined this category as "unincorporated places" in

550-461: The 1950 Census and used that term through the 1970 Census. For the 1950 Census, these types of places were identified only outside " urbanized areas ". In 1960 , the Census Bureau also identified unincorporated places inside urbanized areas (except in New England , whose political geography is based on the New England town , and is distinctly different from other areas of the U.S.), but with

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600-523: The 2010 U.S. Census . Due to its proximity to Big Bend National Park , today Terlingua is mostly a tourist destination for park visitors. Rafting and canoeing on the Rio Grande, mountain biking, camping, hiking, and motorcycling are some of the outdoor activities favored by tourists. On the first Saturday of November, over 10,000 "chiliheads" convene in Terlingua for two annual chili cookoffs :

650-463: The Colorado School of Mines ), who taught Perry how to mine. In 1906, they agreed to install a 20-ton Scott furnace. The furnace was initially heated with mesquite and cottonwood . However, Perry hired geologist Johan August Udden to prospect for coal on his property in 1926. The resultant coal was used to generate producer gas . Water was supplied by Mexican freighters hauling water from

700-463: The Mexico–United States border , and unincorporated resort and retirement communities and their environs. The boundaries of any CDP may change from decade to decade, and the Census Bureau may de-establish a CDP after a period of study, then re-establish it some decades later. Most unincorporated areas within the United States are not and have not been included in any CDP. The boundaries of

750-745: The Moorish architecture from his visit to Almadén . The two-story structure had nine bedrooms, a wine cellar, nine 10-foot arches, and a 90-foot front porch. By 1913, Perry had installed in Terlingua the Chisos Hotel, a "company store", an ice-making plant, telephone service, a company doctor, and mail delivery three times a week. By 1936, he had installed the Chisos Theatre and the Oasis Confectionery Shop. His mainly Mexican miners were provided rent-free dwellings. Perry joined

800-494: The New York Yacht Club in 1920. He remained a member until 1944, owning during that time three different yachts, none smaller than 59 feet. In Perry's words, "If he had not wanted the yachts, he would not have made so much money, which he had to do in order to have them." As a consequence, Terlingua became the "Land of Perry", where he controlled all aspects of life. The beginning of the end to financial prosperity

850-587: The Rio Grande 12 miles away. Some water was also obtained from a dam built on the Terlingua Creek and was hauled 10 miles from springs discovered in the Christmas Mountains and Cigar Mountain. By the mid-1920s, water came from the 800-foot level of the Chisos mine, which was pumped to the surface. Udden was also responsible for discovering the great ore body located in the limestone under

900-534: The 2014 murder of Glenn Felts. Terlingua was the main filming location for the 1993 Kenny Rogers TV movie Rio Diablo . Education started with the 1909–1910 school year in a "tent-house". By 1923 the school consisted of 53 students taught in one adobe classroom. Four teachers had joined the staff by the 1927–1928 school year. In 1930 the Chisos Mining Company erected the Perry School . This

950-572: The Big Bend Cinnabar Mining Company, and the Colquitt-Tigner combine. George W. Wanless and Charles Allen began working the area of California Mountain around 1894 based on reports of Mexican miners from as early as 1850. Ore was found in 1896. Jack Dawson, J.A. Davies and Louis Lindheim soon followed. A Terlingua post office was established in 1899 at the California Mountain mining community. The origin of

1000-693: The Bonanza silver mine near Sierra Blanca, Texas , and the Stanley gold mine in Canada. With more accounts becoming delinquent, and creditors becoming more irate, Perry was forced into bankruptcy on 1 October 1942. Perry died not long afterwards, on 6 December 1944. The regional geology is characterized by the Terlingua Uplift and the Solitario Dome . The southwestern and southern flank of

1050-512: The Census Bureau considers some towns in New England states, New Jersey and New York as well as townships in some other states as MCDs, even though they are incorporated municipalities in those states. In such states, CDPs may be defined within such towns or spanning the boundaries of multiple towns. There are a number of reasons for the CDP designation: Populus fremontii Populus fremontii , commonly known as Frémont's cottonwood ,

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1100-619: The Chili Appreciation Society International and the Frank X. Tolbert / Wick Fowler World Chili Championship (established 1967). In the late 1970s, the Chili Cook-Off sponsored a “Mexican Fence-Climbing Contest” to spoof the U.S. government's planned reinforcement of the chain-link fence separating El Paso, Texas, from Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, and San Ysidro, California, from Tijuana, Mexico. The fence

1150-585: The Chisos Pipe in the Chisos Mine. The Chisos Mine is located in the town of Terlingua and produced most of the quicksilver in the area. Discovered in 1902, it operated until 1943, producing 100,000 flasks of quicksilver. Three shafts connected 23 miles of workings over 17 levels. The mine included a 20-ton Scott furnace and a 100-ton rotary furnace . Cinnabar was discovered near the No. 9 shaft around 1897,

1200-592: The Chisos geologists, A.R. Fletcher, later testified that the "mine was extremely hot, horribly hot, and there wasn't any provision made for ventilation." Financial problems with the Chisos mine were compounded when Perry bought the Mariposa mine in 1928 and then the Rainbow Mine in 1938. Though a major ore body in the Mariposa was found by Fletcher in 1935, by 1939, Fletcher reported that the Chisos Mine "had been worked out." Perry further squandered scarce cash on

1250-553: The Del Rio clay. Phillips' departure in the autumn of 1906 began Perry's direct management of the mine. Remarkably, he did this from his Chicago office. In essence, as Ragsdale notes, "Perry first perfected the technique of management in absentia " and "supervision-in-detail became the distinguishing feature of the Chicago-Terlingua correspondence." The book quotes a 1939 letter to Robert Cartledge (Eugene's son who became

1300-479: The United States grows in Skull Valley, Arizona. In 2012, it had a measured circumference of 557 in (14,100 mm), height of 102 ft (31 m), and a spread of 149.5 ft (45.6 m). Two subspecies are currently recognized. Some confusion due to hybridization with a Rio Grande subspecies of Populus deltoides subsp. wislizeni had originally placed this eastern cottonwood subspecies as

1350-585: The Woods-Perry Lumber Company until he was 21. Perry then moved to Chicago in 1881 and started work at C.M. Henderson, eventually rising to the position of director after his marriage to Grace Henderson on 2 February 1897. In 1914, they moved to Portland, Maine . By 1887, Perry had acquired four sections in Texas, most likely as security on an unpaid debt. Perry was offered increasingly more money for his property, which prompted him to hire

1400-452: The attorney Eugene Cartledge to investigate. Cartledge determined the mining on adjoining property was actually infringing on the Perry property, through an error in a previous survey. Perry's attorneys filed a motion on 8 November 1900, and Perry finally was granted legal possession on 13 May 1901, when the case was decided in his favor. Perry founded the Chisos Mining Company on 8 May 1903 with

1450-490: The basis for the preceding McKinney-Parker Mine. Peak production of 7,200 flasks occurred in 1917. The mine was operated by Howard E. Perry's Chisos Mining Co. until 1 October 1942, when the company declared insolvency and was purchased by the Esperado Mining Co. The Esperado Mining Co. closed the mine at the end of World War II . The village was abandoned and all company surface property was scrapped. At its peak,

1500-484: The boundaries for CDPs. The PSAP was to be offered to county and municipal planning agencies during 2008. The boundaries of such places may be defined in cooperation with local or tribal officials, but are not fixed, and do not affect the status of local government or incorporation; the territories thus defined are strictly statistical entities. CDP boundaries may change from one census to the next to reflect changes in settlement patterns. Further, as statistical entities,

1550-419: The boundaries of the CDP may not correspond with local understanding of the area with the same name. Recognized communities may be divided into two or more CDPs while on the other hand, two or more communities may be combined into one CDP. A CDP may also cover the unincorporated part of a named community, where the rest lies within an incorporated place. By defining an area as a CDP, that locality then appears in

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1600-520: The cinnabar mining operation began. The cemetery continues to be used to this day by Terlingua residents, and Dia de los Muertos is celebrated every year. Terlingua features in Wim Wenders ' movie Paris, Texas . Travis is brought there to the German physician. Terlingua was the focus of the 2015 National Geographic Channel show Badlands, Texas . The reality show followed the case surrounding

1650-611: The first mercury from Terlingua in 1888, but the district got off to a slow start. The Terlingua finds did not begin to be publicized in newspapers and mining industry magazines until the mid-1890s. By 1900, four mining companies had recovered 1000 flasks in the district: Lindheim and Dewees, Marfa and Mariposa, the California, and the Excelsior. By 1903, they were joined by the Texas Almaden Mining Company,

1700-788: The geographic extent associated with inhabitants' regular use of the named place. There is no provision, however, that this name recognition be unanimous for all residents, or that all residents use the community for which the CDP is named for services provided therein. There is no mandatory correlation between CDP names or boundaries and those established for other human purposes, such as post office names or zones, political precincts, or school districts. The Census Bureau states that census-designated places are not considered incorporated places and that it includes only census-designated places in its city population list for Hawaii because that state has no incorporated cities. In addition, census city lists from 2007 included Arlington County, Virginia 's CDP in

1750-556: The list with the incorporated places, but since 2010, only the Urban Honolulu CDP, Hawaii, representing the historic core of Honolulu, Hawaii , is shown in the city and town estimates. The Census Bureau reported data for some unincorporated places as early as the first census in 1790 (for example, Louisville, Kentucky , which was not legally incorporated in Kentucky until 1828), though usage continued to develop through

1800-696: The mid-1880s brought miners to the area, creating a city of 2,000 people. The only remnants of the mining days are a ghost town of the Howard Perry-owned Chisos Mining Company and several nearby capped and abandoned mines: the California Hill, the Rainbow, the 248, and the Study Butte mines. The mineral terlinguaite was first found in the vicinity of California Hill. The population of Terlingua as of 2020

1850-619: The mine employed 125 men around the clock. The second-most prolific mine in the areas was the Mariposa Mine, located seven miles west of Terlingua. In 1901, the mine was operated by the Marfa and Mariposa Mining Co., owned by Montroyd Shayse and Thomas Golby. That company operated until 1910, when the mine was owned by the Esperado Mining Co. The mine produced between 20,000 and 30,000 flasks of quicksilver, most of it from 1895 to 1911, though production continued through World War II . Most of

1900-443: The mining company's general manager) from the man who ruled Terlingua like a feudal lord from afar, “… no other man in the world could have created Chisos like I had done. And scarcely any man in the world but that would have lost it many years ago.” Perry also received semiweekly telegraphed production reports. These reports and other correspondence used code books to maintain secrecy. In 1906, Perry built his Perry Mansion based on

1950-525: The name Terlingua may be a corruption of Tres Lenguas (which means "three tongues" in Spanish), in reference to an early mine or local feature. By 1903, 3000 people populated the area. The mining center and post office eventually moved to the area of the Chisos Mine and the original settlement took on the name of Mariposa. Born on 2 November 1858 in Cleveland, Ohio , Howard E. Perry worked for his father in

2000-706: The production occurred on California Hill in cave-fill zones, which are solution caverns in the Devils River limestone. Calomel is most common. The third-largest producer of quicksilver in the area was the Study Butte Mine, located five miles east of Terlingua. Cinnabar was discovered here in 1902 and mined from 1905. The property was operated in World War II by the Texas Mercury Co. Cinnabar occurs in ore-bearing fractures or veins within

2050-412: The purposes of gathering and correlating statistical data. CDPs are populated areas that generally include one officially designated but currently unincorporated community, for which the CDP is named, plus surrounding inhabited countryside of varying dimensions and, occasionally, other, smaller unincorporated communities as well. CDPs include small rural communities, edge cities , colonias located along

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2100-457: The same category of census data as incorporated places. This distinguishes CDPs from other census classifications, such as minor civil divisions (MCDs), which are in a separate category. The population and demographics of the CDP are included in the data of county subdivisions containing the CDP. Generally, a CDP shall not be defined within the boundaries of what the Census Bureau regards to be an incorporated city, village or borough. However,

2150-434: The sides, glabrous to hairy, and often stained with milky resin. Autumn colors occur from October–November, mainly a bright yellow, also orange, rarely red. The inflorescence consists of a long, drooping catkin , which blooms from March to April. The fruit is a wind-dispersed achene , that appears to look like patches of cotton hanging from limbs, thus the name cottonwood. The largest known P. fremontii tree in

2200-685: The uplift is marked by the Terlingua Monocline . Cinnabar is the most common ore mineral localized along an east–west trend around Terlingua. It occurs as a replacement mineral and as a filling in rock openings such as fractures in igneous rocks. The most common deposits are along the contact between the Lower Cretaceous Devils River limestone and the Upper Cretaceous Grayson clay formation . The most valuable ore body occurred in

2250-458: The “chili heads” used was constructed by undocumented Mexican workers who labored annually for the Cook-Off organizers at $ 5 a day plus meals and rustic lodging. Among the founders of the first chili cookoff in 1967 was car manufacturer Carroll Shelby , who owned a 220,000-acre (890 km) ranch nearby. Near the general store is Terlingua Cemetery, with the earliest grave dating to 1903, when

2300-425: Was 78. According to the historian Kenneth Baxter Ragsdale, "Facts concerning the discovery of cinnabar in the Terlingua area are so shrouded in legend and fabrication that it is impossible to cite the date and location of the first quicksilver recovery." The cinnabar was apparently known to Native Americans , who supposedly used its brilliant red color for pictographs . A man named Jack Dawson reportedly produced

2350-685: Was a four-room stucco building for the 141 students enrolled in the 1931–1932 school year. Terlingua is now served by the Terlingua Common School District . Big Bend High School is the local school. Prior to fall 1996 students at the high school level attended Alpine High School in the Alpine Independent School District . Previously the Terlingua CSD had Big Bend High and Terlingua Elementary as separate schools. Brewster County

2400-511: Was in sight, however, by 1930, when Perry was forced into a $ 75,000 settlement with the adjoining Rainbow Mine. The Chisos Mine's No. 9 Shaft had been mining a rich ore body that extended 200 ft into the Rainbow claim. Then in 1934, Perry was forced to increase wages in a settlement with the National Recovery Administration . More disturbing were the accusations the mine was a "death trap" for miner safety. One of

2450-481: Was reduced to 2,500. From 1950 through 1990, the Census Bureau specified other population requirements for unincorporated places or CDPs in Alaska , Puerto Rico , island areas, and Native American reservations . Minimum population criteria for CDPs were dropped with the 2000 Census . The Census Bureau's Participant Statistical Areas Program (PSAP) allows designated participants to review and suggest modifications to

2500-696: Was used in the past by settlers and ranchers for fuel and fence posts. Native Americans in the Western United States and Mexico used parts of Frémont's cottonwood variously for a medicine, in basket weaving , for tool making, and for musical instruments . The inner bark of Frémont's cottonwood contains vitamin C and was chewed as an antiscorbutic - treatment for vitamin C deficiency. The bark and leaves could be used to make poultices to reduce inflammation or to treat wounds . The Pima people of southern Arizona and northern Mexico lived along Sonoran Desert watercourses and used twigs from

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