Alpine (Texas)

Large collection of artifacts with exhibits on the long history of habitation in the area, from the earliest native tribes up through the Spanish, Mexican, and American eras.

Exhibits focusing on the geology of the region.

Began as a teachers college in 1920, with its original campus in Alpine. Named for Lawrence Sullivan Ross, a Confederate States Army general during the American Civil War, Texas' 19th governor and later president of the new land grant college which became Texas A&M, it is now a member of the Texas State University System. The 600-acre main campus on the lower slopes of Hancock Hill contains 20 or so buildings, most designed in Classical Revival style, and all harmoniously faced with red brick and white trim. The hillside gives fine views of the town below and the surrounding mountain ranges.

Built in 1887–1888 by Tom Lovett, a local contractor, who apparently designed the buildings, as well (documentation is scarce). Open to visitors, historic photographs are displayed in the great hall. The red brick courthouse is a fine example of the American Second Empire Style. The rectangular mass has five bays of paired round-arch window openings on the longer north and south facades. The shorter east and west facades have three bays. On three facades, the center bay contains a doorway at ground level, set in a thin, barely protruding pavilion. The second-story windows are slightly taller than the first-floor openings, a trick of the eye making the two-and-a-half-story building seem even taller. The walls are topped by a pressed-tin entablature composed of a frieze and cornice. The mansard roof is marked by steeply hipped pyramidal towers with pressed-tin cresting. The interior retains exemplary pressed-tin ceilings and some original woodwork. A wooden staircase with Eastlake-type details rises to the general courtroom on the second floor.

Distinguished by a crenelated brick parapet wall, suggesting "a fortress-like impregnability".

One of the least visited national parks in the continental U.S.

Just west of the national park, with over 300,000 acres of wilderness, miles of rugged and remote backcountry trails. The park is great for mountain biking, horseback riding, and canoe excursions on the Rio Grande.

High in the mountains of West Texas, formed by volcanoes and sculpted by wind and water, the Davis Mountains rise more than 8,300 feet above sea level out of the Chihuahuan Desert. Miles of hiking trails, backpack, mountain bike, horse riding, camping. Indian Lodge hotel has a restaurant, and a swimming pool for lodge guests.