New Year, new Desert Dispatch! We'll be featuring a rotating cast of staff members and locals in the newsletter. First up is Marfa Public Radio's Operations Coordinator, Lindsey Hauck.
Shortly before our fall membership drive, a few of us at the radio station decided to take a field trip to see the radio tower. I had only a vague idea of where it was, what it looked like, and how it worked1. Working at Marfa Public Radio and never having seen the tower felt a bit like having a mysterious, silent (and very tall) coworker I’d never met.
So, we set off in two pickups. We left Marfa going north, up TX-17 towards Fort Davis, past the Marfa Municipal Airport, the Village Farms tomato greenhouses, and the many cattle doing their cattle things. We made a turn west, past Point of Rocks, the entrance to the Davis Mountains Resort2 and Bloys Camp, until we came to the Crow's Nest, an RV park/campground/ranch. Through the Crow’s Nest3, we drove slowly on a bumpy road until we came to a gate.
Once through the gate, our caravan climbed. The road to the tower does not so much feel ‘bumpy and steep’ as it does ‘like driving on top of lots of rocks piled on one another.’ The jostling is extreme, and the sense of precarity grows as the altitude increases and the road narrows to about as wide as the truck itself. I realized I was gripping the door handle with white knuckles.
It’s also very, very beautiful - and given that the path is mostly a series of switchbacks, zigzagging up the mountain, there are sudden and abrupt changes in the view as the vehicle sharply changes direction. I took many photos.
We approached one such switchback, where there was a sort of ‘landing’ on which to situate one’s vehicle before attempting the very steep stretch that lay ahead. Very steep, and very much rutted out. From our truck, we watched the truck ahead of us (piloted by Marfa Public Radio News Director Travis Bubenik), blast its way up the slope at an angle that made me think of the absurd “off roading” that takes place in car commercials4. It then disappeared quickly around the next switchback, to the left. I’ll spare you the minute mechanics of the next ten minutes but, after several expert attempts by our driver Elise, and several subsequent slides backward to the landing that put my stomach right up into my throat, we realized it wasn’t going to happen. The bed of Travis’s truck then reappeared before us at the turn up ahead. Our colleagues had returned (in reverse) to rescue us. We piled into the open bed of Travis’s truck and proceeded. After another ten minutes or so of open-air jostling, we arrived at the foot of the tower. All in all, the journey had taken almost two hours.
The tower stands on four huge concrete pylons around five feet tall, and it stretches 300 feet into the sky. I’m told there is no reason for the tower to be as tall as it is, engineering-wise; the height of the mountain is far more determinative of broadcast range than the height of the equipment itself. Our tower has something charmingly old-fashioned about it. With its riveted construction and red-white stripe pattern, it looks like if a WPA-era bridge and a barbershop pole had a baby. It makes me want to talk in a transatlantic accent. We keep calling the tower “she,” like a ship.
The tower itself doesn’t make any noise but the small concrete structure next to it is whirring with ventilation equipment. This structure houses several machines, a couple of them no longer in use and extremely retro. Looking out, we are higher than the Aerostat5, and we can see Fort Davis to the east, and Valentine to the southwest. It’s a really warm day, and clear except for the haze around the rim of the horizon. There are so few multi-story buildings around here, so to see anything from far ‘Above’ is rare and yes, requires a journey like the one we just took. I also think about how, all the while, our station and this tower are broadcasting 24/7/365.
The reason I wanted to tell you about all this, to report on our field trip, is because it exemplified for me something particular to life Out Here. It’s rough, remote, and not without risk. It requires a certain amount of grit. It takes being willing to do what you can with what (and who) you’ve got. It’s also just so beyond-words beautiful much of the time. But unlike the beauty of art, architecture, poetry, etc - the beauty of Out Here isn’t created to be consumed, or for the sake of beauty, or for any sake at all - it just is. You can take a look, a hike, or a listen whenever you like - it’s all just there. Like the radio, you can tune in anytime. You just might need four-wheel drive.
- I still don’t know how the tower works. Or the radio, honestly. Or electricity or the internet. So sue me.
- Coming soon from Marfa Public Radio: The Last Resort, a podcast exploring the secluded DMR and the 1997 Republic of Texas standoff that made it briefly famous.
- This sounds like a nickname for a secret or maybe even mythical location, and when our executive director, Elise Pepple (driver of one of our two trucks in the caravan), said the turn was ‘at the Crow’s Nest,’ I thought she meant some particular tree or rock formation that, if you squint, would somehow evoke a crow’s nest. This is not the case. The Crow’s Nest is a proper noun and a known location.
- To avoid the appearance of journalistic impropriety I have been avoiding stating the make and model of the vehicles, lest that information be misinterpreted as an endorsement. But also I’m not a journalist. They were both Toyota Tacomas. Still, this is not an ad.
- For those unfamiliar, the Aerostat is a tethered aircraft near Valentine, used for radar detection along the US-Mexico border. When on the ground, it looks like a weird blimp. In the sky, it looks like a Goldfish cracker.
Caló
Gota - In modern Spanish, it means drop, as in a drop of water, and it's the basis for the word for tired, agotado, as in being wrung out like a wet cloth. In Caló, gota, means gasoline or energy. You buy gota, and you say you’re low on it when you’re out of strength or power. “I can’t go further up the mountain, ese. I’ve run out of gota.”
Caló is a borderland dialect. You can find more episodes here.
From the Newsroom
Midland County officials on Tuesday voted to establish a new citizen-led committee that will be in charge of assessing whether books in the children’s and young adult sections at local libraries should remain on the shelves.The move by the Midland County Commissioners Court institutes a new library policy that changes how books that library patrons flag as potentially inappropriate or harmful are assessed. The new process is referred to as the “Reconsideration of Library Materials Policy.”
Mitch Borden has more on the new committee, here.
High Five
To accompany you on your West Texas drive, whether it's up the side of a mountain or just down the road, a selection of tunes:
- Come on Let's Go - Broadcast
- Are You Having Any Fun? - Elaine Stritch
- Drive Me, Crazy- Orville Peck
- Pack Yr Romantic Mind - Stereolab
- So Far Away - Carole King
you can find all of our archived music shows on our Mixcloud.
PSAs
Alpine Community Projects is hosting a Far West Texas Community-Building Summit, Friday January 17th and Saturday January 18th. Friday evening will include a talk with Doug Griffiths, author of 13 Ways to Kill Your Community. Then on Saturday morning, a conversation for the community to discuss next steps.
This event is free and open to all, but space is limited. Register online here.
If you have PSAs you want on the air or in this newsletter, head to www.marfapublicradio.org/psa.
