Marfa, Texas is located in the high desert plains about 20 miles from Fort Davis. Marfa replaced Fort Davis as the county seat for Presidio County, TX in 1885. It looks like they bought the paint for the courthouse from Susan G. Komen.
Aside from that distinction, Marfa has a few other areas of notoriety. Among these are the site of the filming of the movie, Giant; the site of the Marfa Army Airfield; and the mysterious Marfa Lights.
In 1911 Marfa became a site for a Calvary post and in the early years of World War II, the government built the Marfa Army Airfield. Purchase price for the land was a whopping $6.50 per acre. The airfield was decommissioned and permanently abandoned in 1985.
In 1956, the film Giant was released. Giant was filmed in and around Marfa and the prestigious cast included the likes of Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, and James Dean, who died before the picture was complete. During the filming, most of the cast stayed at the Hotel Paísano .
The lobby and common areas remain much as they were in the 50’s.
The courtyard is still a popular meeting spot for happy hour.
We were fairly early for dinner so we were pretty much by ourselves in the dining room. The food and service were very good.
Part of the hotel is set aside for the sale of Giant memorabilia and a photo wall. (Most of our photos of this area lacked a certain level of clarity)
After dinner we headed about 8 miles east of Marfa toward Alpine to the mysterious Marfa Lights viewing area which is on land that was once home to the Marfa Army Airfield.
In the daylight, you have to look pretty hard to find the beauty in the area where the lights can be seen.
After the sun went down, we stared out into the darkness. Some nights are better viewing than others. This is a loop of some of the lights that we saw.
Our visit to Marfa was a side trip from Fort Davis to where we returned following the light show. Our next stop will be Fredericksburg, TX and the Museum of the Pacific.
Cool!