By Lee Jay Carpenter
Texas Aviation Association
(Presidio County, July 30, 2007) In the l 950’s, I grew up in the Davis Mountain region and enjoyed exploring the Chihuahuan Desert with my dad in his Cessna 180. We often landed in remote areas including Marfa and the Big Bend to hunt for arrowheads and rare rocks. To return to this majestic part of Texas for this article was most enjoyable!
Marfa, Texas, is located halfway between El Paso and Del Rio in the majestic Davis Mountains of West Texas.
The city is the home of famous artists and their studios; it is an ideal location for soaring aircraft and is home of the mysterious Marfa Lights. At 5,000 feet above sea level on the Marfa Plateau, one enjoys mild summers and pleasant winters.
The first Spanish explorers came to this area in the early to mid l 500’s Two missions were constructed near an area they called La Junta de los Rios, the junction of the rivers, one of which is the Rio Grande. The missions were erected near where Presidio, Texas, is located today. In the 1850’s, after a threat from Mescalero Apache uprisings, a settlement was developed in an area 80 miles to the north of La Junta. The settlement was named La Limpia, located on a creek by the same name. To protect the settlement, U.S. Secretary of War Jefferson Davis established an army post in 1854 called Fort Davis.
From 1880 to 1890, the surge of growth in Presidio County was precipitated by cattlemen seeking new territory to graze their herds. This combined with the birth of silver mining operations and the extension of the railroad brought stabilization to the area The name Marfa was derived from a female character in Dostoevsky’s book Brothers Koramozov. The wife of a railroad engineer was reading the book as they arrived at the water stop. She named the town.
The nearest major airports are in El Paso and Midland; both are nearly 200 miles away. Therefore, the Marfa Municipal Airport (KMRF) plays an important role as the gateway to this social center and nearby Big Bend National Park.
Although it is called the Marfa Municipal Airport, the facility which was built in 1979, is actually owned by Presidio County. A permanent fixture at the airport is operations manager Ron Lewis who will meet and greet visitors flying into the area. Lewis can provide fuel, aircraft maintenance and car rentals. Since he lives at the airport, great service is only a phone call away pretty much any time of the day.
Runways 12 and 30 are over 6,000 feet long which can accommodate even the largest business jets. There are GPS and VOR approaches for runway 30. With the development of the artist community and other attractions, this airport is visited by many business jets arriving from all around the world. “We have approximately four jets arrive and depart each week,” said Lewis. For a town with a population of only a couple of thousand folks, that’s a lot of jet traffic! He continues, “On several occasions we have had Charles Schwab and his family arrive from New York in his Global Express. And, when the Chinati and Judd Foundations host their annual Open House during Columbus Day weekend in October, we will sometimes have 20-25 jets from all over the world visiting at one time. Those pilots can have delays getting their Air Traffic Control clearance out of here when they all try to leave at the same time.”
Also, at Marfa Municipal Airport, you will find Burt Compton, owner of Marfa Gliders. Compton is a Master Flight Instructor and FAA Designated Pilot Examiner. In 2007, he was selected as “Flight Instructor of the Year” by the Lubbock FAA FSDO (Federal Aviation Administration Flight Standards District Office). At Marfa Gliders, Compton provides services ranging from glider rides, Aight instruction, rating certifications, plus advice on family adventure activities, horseback riding, star-gazing and art galleries. Burt and wife Kathie Compton were married in a glider high above the Marfa Municipal Airport. Each year, the Compton’s sponsor the “Burt & Kathie Compton Aviation Experience Scholarship,” designed for qualifying Marfa High School students.
According to Compton, Marfa’s location and terrain provide near perfect conditions for gliders. Gliders are aircraft that do not have an engine but instead have long wingspans that provide exceptional lift. The glider is towed into the air by another motorized aircraft using a strong rope. At about 2,000 feet above ground level, the glider releases the tow line and is then on its own to maintain altitude. They cruise around at 50-80 knots searching the sky for thermals. Because of the numerous updrafts in the area, the glider pilot con get a free ride upward by circling in these rising columns of air. “A trained pilot can maintain altitude for hours,” said Compton. He explained that many times the updrafts are so favorable that a pilot can maintain altitude all day long, burning no fuel, using solar power alone.
Compton demonstrated to me how to spot thermals from the ground. Looking from his hangar door, he pointed out several isolated billowing cumulus clouds to the west of the airport. “Beneath each of those clouds are updraft thermals. We seek out those areas to gain lift from the thermals,” said Compton, further explaining that even on days when there are no clouds, glider pilots can identify thermals uplifts by observing soaring Turkey Vultures. “Often,” he said, “we share the same airspace as our buzzard cousins in order to maintain altitude.”
He claimed that a glider pilot can climb to altitudes as high as 14,000 feet above mean sea level. “The record is 49,000 feet,” said Compton. He continues, “On cross-country contests pilots can often fly distances of 1,000 miles and more in a single flight. It’s called ‘wave flying’ where a ridge of air pressure is formed along dry line boundaries that often start at the Marfa Plateau and can reach as far north as Canada. The questions for the soaring pilot are: how high in altitude, how long in hours and how far in distance can we go?”
Marfa was the site of the 1970 World Soaring Contest and where The Sunship Game soaring movie was filmed. You can reach Burt Compton either on his Web site www.Aygliders.com, by e-mail at [email protected] or by phone at 800/ 667-9464. Tourists are also attracted to Marfa to see other popular landmarks in the area.
The famous El Hotel Paisono is listed in the National Register of Historic Landmarks. The hotel accommodated the cost of movie stars during the filming of Giant.
One popular attraction of the region is the Marfa Lights, sometimes called the Marfa Mystery Lights. These strange phenomena are unexplained lights {known as “ghost lights”) usually seen near U.S. Route 67 on Mitchell Flat east of Marfa. The first confirmed report of the Marfa Lights dates to a 1957 magazine article, but earlier oral reports of the Marfa Lights have been attributed to Robert Reed Ellison back in 1883.
What are the Marfa Lights? Hoving grown up in the region, I remember seeing the “balls of blue fire” on several occasions. I still don’t know what they are. Some say that they are ball lightning or plasma generated by geological forces deep inside the earth. Others claim that they are actual ghosts of Indians that once roomed the area. Scientists have studied the phenomena but have not arrived at a conclusion. Skeptics attribute them to mistaken sightings of ordinary night-time lights, such as distant vehicle lights, ranch lights, or astronomical objects. Did I hear “swamp gas?” Personally, I like the ghost version. Ron Lewis from the Marfa Municipal Airport says that the Mystery Lights have become so popular that 20 to 30 cars show up each night at a roadside station erected by the Texas Department of Transportation along U.S. Route 67, a few miles east of Marfa. And usually in September on the Labor Day Weekend, the Marfa Lights Festival is held.
As a growing center for artists, Marfa boasts several art galleries with world wide acclaim. The Chinati Foundation is a contemporary art museum located on the edge of town that preserves and offers for public viewing large-scale, permanent or temporary installations by a limited number of artists. This museum is one of the reasons that so many business jets visit and land at the Marfa Municipal Airport, especially in October for their annual Open House.
No doubt, Marfa is a rare jewel in the high deserts of West Texas. It has a rich history, vast mountain terrains, a sophisticated artist community including the soaring Capitol of the Universe and the source of many family-oriented entertainment activities.
If you fly into the Marfa Municipal Airport, remember to check the weather first. The airport elevation is 4,849 feet above mean sea level and Density Altitude can soar up to 8,000 feet and higher in the mid-summer day. Plan on landing early in the day and be prepared for extra takeoff lengths after 10 a.m. Call the local Area Weather Observation System at 432/729-3364 for the latest weather data.
