Highest Town in Texas—Where the Stars Come Out to Play (Fort Davis slogan)
“Where the stars come out ot play” is the slogan of Fort Davis, near Mount Locke and the McDonald Observatory. Fort Davis is also called “The Highest Town in Texas” because the Davis Mountains (“Texas Alps”) are the second highest range in Texas.
Handbook of Texas Online
FORT DAVIS, TEXAS. Fort Davis, the county seat of Jeff Davis County, is on Limpia Creek at the intersection of State highways 17 and 118, eighty miles northeast of Presidio and 175 miles southeast of El Paso in south central Jeff Davis County. The precursor of the town was a rough-and-tumble settlement known as Chihuahua, which formed just southwest of the military post of Fort Davis after it was established in 1854. The fort was on the site of an earlier Indian village, which the earliest Anglo-American explorers of the area called Painted Comanche Camp.
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In May 1946 David A. Simmons of Houston, former president of the American Bar Association, bought the property on which the old fort stood with the intention of restoring it and opening it to the public as a year-round resort. Simmons died in 1951, before his plan could be realized, but in September 1961 Fort Davis National Historic Site came into being; the 460-acre site was formally dedicated in April 1966. A few years later the Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute, headquartered in Alpine, opened an arboretum on a 300-acre tract of land on State Highway 118 just southeast of Fort Davis. Both these attractions, as well as the nearby Davis Mountains State Park and the University of Texas McDonald Observatory, have helped make tourism an important part of the Fort Davis economy.
Handbook of Texas Online
DAVIS MOUNTAINS. The Davis Mountains, the “Texas Alps,” are the second highest range in Texas. They extend sixty miles in the shape of a V from north to west central Jeff Davis County, with the point to the southeast at Fort Davis; the approximate center of the range is ten miles northwest of Fort Davis (at 30°43’ N, 104°00’ W). The highest elevation in the Davis Mountains is 8,378-foot Mount Livermore, the fifth-highest peak in the state; several other peaks in the range rise to over 7,000 feet above sea level.
Handbook of Texas Online
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN MCDONALD OBSERVATORY. The McDonald Observatory of the University of Texas at Austin is located on Mount Locke,qv near Fort Davis. It owes its foundation to the unexpected legacy of William Johnson McDonald, bachelor banker of Paris, Texas, who died on February 6, 1926, at the age of eighty-one. Initially his will was contested, but after protracted legal actions the university received $850,000 for the establishment of an astronomical observatory. McDonald is said to have thought that an observatory would improve weather forecasting and therefore help farmers to plan their work. The university, having no astronomy faculty, signed a thirty-year collaborative agreement with the University of Chicago in 1932, whereby Texas financed the telescope and Chicago provided the astronomers.
Texas Department of Agriculture - Texas Yes!
Fort Davis
Destination:
Fort Davis, “Where the Stars Come Out to Play”
Where You’ll Find It:
Big Bend Country Region; 150 miles from Midland. (Jeff Davis County)
Texans Who Call This Home:
1,200
Snapshot:
Established in 1854, the original fort is now a national historic site. The area is also home to Davis Mountains State Park and the McDonald Observatory, which houses the world’s largest telescope mirror. Visitors can see stars and planets under one of the darkest skies on the continent.
Did You Know:
Fort Davis is the highest town in Texas with an elevation of 5,050 feet.
Fort Davis, Texas
Today, ranching and tourism still reigns, but Fort Davis is also known as the “Highest Town in Texas – Where the Stars Come Out to Play.” Located here is the University of Texas, McDonald Observatory, the observatory hosts the 107” Harlan J. Smith telescope located atop 6800 feet Mt. Locke and the Hobby-Ebberly Telescope (HET) containing the World’s third largest mirror (433”) made up of ninety-one 40-inch mirror segments on adjacent Mt. Fowlkes. Our unspoiled vistas have made us a film making location “Lonesome Dove,” “The Good Old Boys,” “The Streets of Laredo,” “Dead Man’s Walk,” and most recently. “Dancer, Texas, Pop: 81.” We are the host to four of the world’s largest greenhouses at 26 acres each and—perhaps most significantly—as one of the last unspoiled places in the great State of Texas
Amazon.com
Fort Davis: Highest Town In Texas - Where The Stars Come Out To Play Mug
Other products by DAS
Price: $11.95
yellowdog granny
Monday, May 22, 2006
CATCH PHRASES AND OTHER SHIT
I found this article in my DAM NEWS yesterday and thought it was cute/funny/weird enough to pass along…
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TOP TEXAS SLOGANS (SO THEY SAY)
1. WHEN YEE-HAH MEETS OLE…EAGLE PASS
2. KEEP AUSTIN WEIRD…AUSTIN
3. LOSE YOUR HEART TO THE HILLS..KERRYVILE
4. THE TOWN WITHOUT A FROWN..HAPPY
5. WHERE THE STARS COME OUT TO PLAY ....FORT DAVIS