Big Bend National Park was still unknown to many Texans in 1973. Not yet thirty years old, the park had only recently begun drawing more than 200,000 visitors each year to its abundant attractions—the verdant Chisos Mountains, the churning Rio Grande, the tableau of a starry night sky unmarred by light pollution. The border was essentially wide open. Terlingua was still basically a ghost town, and the drive between Fort Stockton and Persimmon Gap, the park’s northern entrance, was one hundred miles of virtually nothing. Phoning other far-flung parts of the park from inside required a long-distance call. Electric lines were strung on fence posts. And news from the outside world reached the park largely through the “local” paper, the Alpine Avalanche, published an hour…The post Big Bend, Big Crowds appeared first on Texas Monthly.