Fort Davis

Working our way back in that set, we rapped with Johnny Prude and the Dying Ranger.

Recorded by folklorist John Lomax at Fort Davis, Texas in 1942, and like so many songs that traveled west, it had an earlier life.

The Dying Ranger appears to have been adapted from an older Civil War era ballad called The Dying Soldier, with the soldier transformed into a Texas Ranger.

We also heard from Jess Morris with that great cowboy standard goodbye old paint.

And this group was law officers, and he had been sheriff of that county, and he got a hold of me, and they wanted to do something to honor those killed in the line of duty.

Down in the Big Bend, Marfa, Alpine, Fort Davis, that country.

And long story short, they wind up having me do this...

Well, they wanted a horse, so I suggested what we might do, and it w- uh, this saddle horse saddled, and a guy's been tracking an outlaw 'cause this, the, they said that we're gonna put it at Sul Ross University and all this stuff.

I'm putting quotes around it [laughs] 'cause you all say obtrusion, and I think that's a, a good distinction.

One of my favorite experiences was a summer camp in West Texas, basically outside of, of Fort Davis and the McDonald Observatory in Far West Texas, and you can see the stars and all the beautiful clouds of the universe.

But should cities really worry about light obtrusion, and, and what's important to consider when you're thinking about lighting in a city versus maybe lighting in, in the countryside, especially when it comes to road lights, street lights, all, everything that we're talking about today?

You know, my humble opinion is that both obtruding light anywhere, whether it's light trespass into somebody's apartment window or a garage light going on at, you know, the dead of night, but, you know, you're still awake, but light trespass or whether it's glare, as you mentioned, which hurts the eyes, that's basically the definition, light that hurts your eyes, or sky glow, which is the thing that we're talking about with the observatory and the sky.

Forces Radio and Television Service.

This is SCN Radio, 790 Fort Clayton and 1420 Fort Davis.

Larry Herndon takes curveball high for ball one.

Herndon struck out his first time.

Several things were done to discourage the Comanche and Kiowa, whose depredations along the Grand War Trail had been greatly stepped up.

The War Department flanked the trail on the west by the building of a sizable establishment in a beautiful and romantic spot in the Davis Mountains and named it Fort Davis in honor of the secretary.

Near this spot, more than 300 years before, had passed the shipwrecked, unhorsed, and enslaved, but still valiant Spaniard Cabeza de Baca.

He would later write in his report to his viceroy, describing his journey after leaving the great arid plains to the north, of a valley through which flowed limpid waters.

Dr. R.T. Hill.

End footnote.

After Fort Davis, the department unveiled Fort Lancaster, western Crockett County, as a flanker to the east of the trail.

It was cozily situated in the mesas not far from the Pecos River and beside Live Oak Creek that flows delightful spring water.

And it's some of my most formative, very favorite memories.

I've like drove my kids all the way out to Fort Davis to show them Camp Mitre Peak.

So I'm interested to hear like your, what was scouting like for you? What are your memories? What did you get from it?

You know, I even think about today, three of my best friends that I have to this day are three guys that I got my Eagle Scout with.

We need to make sure that we take care of America first.

Feeling unheard at the federal level, Texans have been attending county-level meetings like this one in Fort Davis to strategize about ways to push back.

An invasion is what it looks like to me, an invasion of construction

that's unnecessary.

Forces Radio and Television Service.

This is SCN Radio, 790 Fort Clayton and 1420 Fort Davis.

Larry Herndon takes curveball high for ball one.

Herndon struck out his first time.

I took one years and years and years ago, or maybe I didn't.

And I'm just saying that for dramatic effect from Fort Davis in West Texas.

Because when you look at these things, you know, somebody at some point held this in their hand and took a hammer or a rock and beat the snot out of this thing into two pieces of wood to hold them together hundreds of years ago.

And here it lays on the ground.