My Dad was an oil driller based out of Odessa for years in the 70s/80s. I've been through Van Horn many, many times growing up. I always liked when he would stop and let me swim at Balmorhea.
That part of Texas and southern New Mexico was a world unto itself, like nowhere else I've ever been since. Sometimes I wonder if its still even there.
Sure it's there. Still empty. Salt Flats. Cornudas. Of course, Guadalupe Peak is part of a National Park now. Spent some time fairly recently working in Carlsbad (2015). Nothing has changed much, but at the time, it was just as expensive as sin to stay there due to the oil boom. Probably real calm these days. The ranch is north east of Blue Origin's launch facility, which is north of Van Horn. We don't own it anymore. Still have the mineral rights though. My mom tells me it was wetter back before WW2. Better for cows. I used to wade in Nickel Creek up by the peak. We used to drive from El Paso out through there and around up through Carlsbad to my dad's family's farms up in the Pecos Valley in Hagerman.
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