How Florence ButtNot Her SonLaunched the H-E-B Empire, H-E-Bs True Texas BBQ Restaurant Is Slipping, Jimmy Carters Peanut-and-Egg Taco Made Quite the Impression on San Antonians. making money. I did nothing more than let it happen, and a real community is there now. Unlike Mr. Smith, whose persona became intertwined with his The crossing was described as a smooth, rock bottom, and was best between Del Rio and El Paso. Admittedly the place was in bankruptcy, but it was still open and promising no drop in service. No spam, ever. [7] The construction of the park cost about $90 million. Lajitas, he hopes, may have another life yet. 50% of job seekers rate their interview experience at Lajitas Golf Resort as positive. Your County. In any event, last summer Lajitas borrowed $12.5 million from a financial house in Connecticut. It was live-music night at La Kiva, the best of it played by a young female fiddle player from the Northeast whod put off grad school to take a job at Lajitas. Pamplin and his partners invested $25 million to expand the resort adding a new hotel and increasing the number of golf holes from 9 to 18. And a federal judge approved the sale of Lajitas earlier this When he decided to sell, Smith, a 54-year-old Austin-based telecommunications tycoon, showed up unannounced and unknown, stepping out of his helicopter just before the auction began to buy Lajitas on a whim for $4.25 million. Big Bend is a diverse region with endless possibilities for adventure and discovery. "What should we do here, Collie?" But after about three quick drinks, she started talking about how the kids she grew up with all called her a traitor for working for Smith. bankrupt resort and give Lajitas another life. If you talk to the people who live in South County. The community was said to be "about the only place where you can shoot 360 degrees", since Santa Fe and Sedona were already used up. On the day of the wedding, after our adventure in. Nobody really likes practicing their golf game. [26][27], "Kelcy" redirects here. Her answer: No dice. At the end of the meal, he tipped her $50. month to Mr. Warren, co-founder, chairman and CEO of Dallas-based Shes quieter than Tinsley but on the same page. The vision on the porch was of rooms priced at $150 a night and an RV park that is open to snowbirds, that will tolerate the occasional rattletrap trailer. Thats a huge mistake. Candidates give an average difficulty score of 2.5 out of 5 (where 5 is the highest level of difficulty) for their job interview at Lajitas Golf Resort. 1,059 reviews. in denim with a pink bandana around her neck and gray hair loosely Please be sure to check back frequently as this journey continues. The piece was made in 1935, well after the end of the Civil War, and depicts Lee on his horse alongside another Confederate soldier. Twelve miles east, on the Terlingua Ghost Town porchthe stretch of cement in front of the come-and-go storefronts where locals gather each evening to watch the Chisos Mountains change colors in the sunsetSmiths Ultimate Hideout, as his marketers called Lajitas, was already being derided as the Ultimate High Doubt. But unlike their city friends who made annual pilgrimages to Big Bend and worried that the new Lajitas would ruin the area, the beer drinkers on the porch watched Smith spend and felt a surprising amount of concern for him. His whole model was based on the idea that he could somehow tame the desert, refashion it to suit his plan, and it was just a matter of time before his vision became known as Smiths Folly. [2] It is also located 95mi (153km) south of Alpine and 50mi (80km) east of Presidio.[7]. Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. Lajitas, TX Real Estate - Lajitas Homes for Sale | realtor.com [2][3][4][6] He has been the co-chairman and co-CEO of Energy Transfer Partners since 2007. By then, consultants and friends had convinced Smith that the dream could be real, and toward that end he had already spent $40 million, which he estimated would be half of his ultimate outlay. Located just east of Big Bend Ranch State Park, a visit to Lajitas, Texas may leave you wondering: is this a town or a resort? What she didnt remember, thankfully, was that I had been sitting at that table. Smiths money was the safety net, the answer to every problem, be it the overall concept or everyday moves that didnt work out. Fast forward another few decades, though, and Lajitas, TX experienced a curious twist of fate: a corporation from Houston bought the entire town, restored most of the buildings, and turned it into a resort for golfers and visitors exploring Big Bend Country. The elevation of the course is 3500 feet. McNairs group paid $132.5 million for the property making it one of the most expensive golf resorts ever sold. They died. The course was designed by Lanny Wadkins. Otherwise youre just buying dirt.. Pershing once pursued Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa. Then, this summer, after resort revenues failed to live up to the terms of the loan, the lender posted the property for foreclosure, and Lajitas filed for Chapter 11 protection. Please see our, 15 Beautiful Hikes in Big Bend National Park, 7 Best Things to Do in Marathon, TX (+ Tips! 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions By the mid-1980s, Lajitas became a resort town with 15 businesses serving 50 people. View 72 homes for sale in Lajitas, TX at a median listing home price of $89,000. with a $4.2 million bid. wonder at the house, garden, stones and path running down to the river. The Lajitas area was then bought by Rex Ivey, Jr., who brought electricity to the community in 1949 and sold part of it to Walter M. Mischer, a Houston entrepreneur and owner of Mischer Corporation. She said, You guys are execs at Lajitas, arent you? When they acknowledged they were, she said, I cant wait to tell everybody what redneck assholes you are. The table went silent, and when she walked off, one of the guys followed her to the bar and asked her not to say anything. slashed prices on the hotel rooms and began charging $29 a night at the Unincorporated community in Texas, United States, "Old Cemetery In Lajitas, Texas, A Tiny Town That Abuts Big Bend National Park In Southwestern Brewster County, On A Bluff Overlooking The Rio Grande River In The Northern Part Of The Chihuahuan Desert", "Mayor Clay Henry III: A Word About the Mayor", "Clay Henry - Famous Beer-Drinking Dead Goat", "LAJITAS, TEXAS (414950), Period of Record Monthly Climate Summary", "Lajitas Resort: Why you better go now - El Paso Inc.: Publishers Column", "Death: Frank Q. Dobbs, producer, director and writer for television and movies", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lajitas,_Texas&oldid=1140605444, Unincorporated communities in Brewster County, Texas, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Source: Western Regional Climate Center, Desert Research Institute, This page was last edited on 20 February 2023, at 21:47. There was no plan at all, no directions from above. In the summer of 2003, Smith opened a remodeled trading post complete with air-conditioning, indoor baos, and a wine-and-coffee bar. Forrest Wilder writes about politics and the outdoors. civilization. associates and friends who include former Dallas Cowboys Charlie Waters For more flight [12] Before that, Lajitas had a school with 50 students in 1912. At the time of the 2010 census, the population of Lajitas was 75. It can be quite a jolt. Owner is the CEO of Energy Transfer. In the early days of the expansion, a number of Smiths captains went into the Starlight Theatre in Terlingua for dinner. He also funded the construction of a church and a school. You leave someplace nice, fly fifty minutes, and expect to arrive someplace nice. McGuirk sold his landholdings around Lajitas to Thomas V. Skaggs, who continued farming. McNairs group has invested millions of dollars into the resort making it one of the most luxurious and exclusive golf resorts in the world. Mr. Leslie on Friday Bridlie Hospitality, to operate the resort. When Steve Smith bought the remote Big Bend town of Lajitas in 2000, he dreamed of building a lush, five-star retreat that would attract the likes of Tiger Woods and Tom Cruise. Mountains to a 7,500-foot landing strip surrounded by scrub brush and He has Seven or eight hours in a car gives you a sense of how far this is from civilization. Lajitas Golf Resort | LinkedIn [5], In 2020, Forbes gave Warren its lowest score for philanthropy, a "1." are more than six.". the rich never came in large numbers. Others wondered if Smiths bean counters had prevailed upon him to fund his dream with other peoples money. Sitemap. world. I had been down in South County reporting for that story on the new Lajitas (and in my defense, Id not participated in the pool). Warren is chief executive officer and chairman of Energy Transfer Partners. And Mischer wanted the place to be fun. It is named for his son. Voted #1 Most Beautiful Golf Course in Texas Golf Magazine Opponents saw it as an attempt to rewrite history. Some links throughout this site are affiliate links. [8], He lives in Preston Hollow, Dallas[5] on an 8+ acre estate on Park Lane valued at more than $30 million. Had he really sprayed a compound on the ground in front of the Lajitas boardwalk that would keep dust from kicking up? Black Jack's Crossing at Lajitas Golf Resort. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. the Rio Grande. That determination will be made by the desert. he wants to put it more in touch with surrounding Brewster County, with [2][6] He served as executive vice-president Cornerstone Natural Gas from 1989 to 1990, and as president and CEO from 1993 to 1996. in the spare beauty of borderlands. He gave her $100 more, then walked out of the place as if everything was fine. Ivey would even get customers prescriptions filled on his weekly runs to Alpine. For the 23 years prior to that, Lajitas had been the property of Houston business giant Walter Mischer, whod turned it into a modest resort with an Old West boardwalk, a nine-hole golf course, ninety cheap hotel rooms, and an RV park for winter Texans, all of it anchored by a 65-year-old ramshackle adobe trading post so vital to the regions commerce and society that some called it the Courthouse of South County. When I visited it in August and October, the trading post was dead. Lajitas Golf Resort. It is located on a bluff overlooking the Rio Grande at San Carlos ford of the old Comanche Trail, in the northern part of the Chihuahuan Desert in southwestern Brewster County. Lajitas International Airport at Lajitas Golf Resort The community boomed when quicksilver was discovered 11 miles from the community at the end of the decade. For groups of "Now I've got to go back to a different world," he said. From 1996 to 2000, Warren served as a director of Crosstex Energy, Inc. and from 1993 to 1996, he served as president, chief operating officer and a director of Cornerstone Natural Gas, Inc. Warren has more than 25 years of business experience in the energy industry. Lajitas Golf Resort and Spa HC 70, Box 400, Lajitas, Big Bend National Park, TX 79852 +1 432-424-5000 Website Open now : 07:00 AM - 9:00 PM See all (62) Food Service Value Atmosphere Food and ambience Local cuisine, American, Southwestern Fire Ants Have Unleashed Chaos in Texas for Decades. Whats Up With All the Kangaroos on the Loose in Texas? The resort was originally owned by oilman and entrepreneur Clayton Williams Jr. Williams purchased the property in 1983 and developed it into a golf resort. Lajitas is also somewhat famous for having a drunk goat named Clay Henry for a mayoryes, you read that correctly! At the same time a number of cattle ranches and mining enterprises appeared in northern Chihuahua and Coahuila. The outing had been arranged in part to show me the way the new folks in Lajitas were being accepted in the community. But instead of a big Spanish villa, he built a modest, 1,800-square-foot cottage with an outdoor fireplace. across the river. question. Locals speculated that he was struggling financially, and the monthly Big Bend Gazette reported that Lajitas was not the only Smith-related enterprise to recently declare bankruptcy. [6], Warren purchased the Roatan Electric Company (RECO) in 2008, where he serves as president and chairman of the board. Black Jack's Crossing at Lajitas Golf Resort may be Texas' most The settlement is named after the Boquillas flagstone found in the area. The decision-making rule of thumb so popular in modern businessthat managers should ask for forgiveness, not permissionwas taken to its untenable extreme. EL PASO (AP) - A West Texas resort billed by its owner as an exclusive desert getaway for the rich and famous filed for federal . Our automated scheduling system is available 24/7. was Mr. Warren's first retreat, an offense to the desert and a leading hotel of the world. When I met him for a quick lunch in Alpine in October, his memories of the old store grew the conversation to two hours. [21], Warren married the former Sherry Johnson on May 18, 1980, in Dallas, and they divorced in 1991. been a thorn in the side of the community," Mr. Leslie said. I paid $320 for a mid-priced suite in the Officers Quarters. LAJITAS GOLF RESORT - 236 Photos & 94 Reviews - Yelp The three-hundred-yard walk to dinner that night was unlit and took me through a construction pit, and the meal for me and my friend at the gourmet Ocotillo was decent but blandthe venison chop, snapper filet, and rattlesnake cake all tasted like their sauce. On Friday morning, after eating breakfast and making sure the Lajitas Golf Resort | Big Bend National Park | Lajitas Texas Carmichael, California, United States. McGuirk sold his landholdings around Lajitas to Thomas V. Skaggs, who continued farming. The biggest attractions that draw visitors to Lajitas, of course, are Big Bend Ranch State Park to the west and Big Bend National Park to the east. To see more of The Dallas Morning News, or to subscribe to the Pamplin sold the resort in 2006 to a group of investors led by Texas businessman Bob McNair. In 1999 Williams sold the resort to a group of investors led by Dickie Pamplin. In 2015, Governor Greg Abbott of Texas appointed Warren to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission. [3] After two replacements of the original Clay Henry, the trading post and stable where the actual mayor lived is now closed and they goat no longer resides there. Jos R. Ralat is Texas Monthlys taco editor, writing about tacos and Mexican food. contracted with Edwin Leslie, president and CEO of Houston-based Grass that was seeded on the golf course couldnt survive on the brackish well water. LAJITAS GOLF RESORT - 236 Photos & 94 Reviews - Yelp state parks, Lajitas has long been one of the stranger outposts of the [2][3][4] He also serves as member of the management council of ETP Enogex Partners LLC, co-CEO of ETC OLP, co-CEO and co-chairman of La Grange Energy and of US Propane LLC. Farming along the narrow floodplain of the river served to bring in more families, and by 1912 the town had a store, a saloon, a school with fifty pupils, and a customhouse. the handmade home of Collie Ryan. Patricia Sharpe writes a regular restaurant column, Pats Pick, for Texas Monthly. Kelcy Warren - Wikipedia As an Amazon Associate, Lone Star Travel Guide earns from qualifying purchases. Upward of thirty people would gatherMexican workers, snowbirds from the RV park, boatmen and floaters just back from a river trip, and college kids whod stopped in to feed cervezas to Mayor Clay Henry, the towns famous beer-drinking goat. If you click through a link on Lone Star Travel Guide, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. There were weeks of discussion leading up to the 13-1 Council vote on September 5, 2017, ending with it being taken down and stored. Lajitas General Store and Deli Thirsty Goat Saloon Pizza Menu Thirsty Goat Menu To make dinner reservations in The Candelilla restaurant, call 432-424-5032 Candelilla Cafe Offering an Interesting Twist on Traditional Tex Mex Cuisine Candelilla Caf Hours of Operation 7 am - 10 pm Daily City documents identified Holmes, but he hadnt hinted at what hed do with his new hunk of Alexander Phimister Proctor-made metal. In 2000, when the property went up for auction, Mr. Smith Enjoy unlimited access to all of our incredible journalism, in print and digital. The region was sparsely inhabited for thousands of years by semi nomadic peoples related to the Patarabueyes and Jumanos tribes before the Spanish arrived. One part Texas frontier town, and one part golf resort, Lajitas is 100% pleasure. Any idea Dennis came up with was worth a try. After Hours Scheduling. Big Bend is home to a few remarkable communities: Marathon, Study Butte, Terlingua Ghost Town, Lajitas, and Big Bend National Park. Lajitas is on the western edge of Big Bend National Park in southwestern Brewster County. Its previous owner, Austin multimillionaire Steve Smith, lavished $100 million to turn the property into an exclusive refuge for the rich, with an 18-hole bentgrass golf course, upscale restaurants, old-world bar, 92 luxury rooms and Mayor Clay Henry, a beer-drinking goat. He was also involved in a dispute with the IRS over $140 million in tax shelters. According to Ivey, Mischer encouraged all this. Lajitas Golf Resort, Terlingua - Updated 2023 Prices - Booking.com Now, we all know people who wouldnt blink at a $33 breakfast. "First let me shake your hand for asking that," Ms. Ryan said, Every facet of life in that trading post was filled with spirit, Ivey said. Just beyond the far end of the boardwalk, a long, columned breezeway divided the dark, leather-bound Thirsty Goat Saloon and the glass-walled Candelilla Caf overlooking the golf course. The Texas Bucket List - Lajitas Golf Resort in Lajitas - YouTube bankruptcy. Youre not prepared for what you get..
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