With the recent reopening of the Hotel Settles in Big Spring, I couldn’t help but wonder about the viability of such a hotel in the remote West Texas town.

Last week, I wrote about the renovation of the 82-year-old Art Deco hotel, which had been sitting vacant for 30 years until the completion of a six-year restoration project in December.

It’s a remarkable resurrection tale—from the hotel’s storied past, to its decay into dilapidation, to Brint Ryan’s $30 million redevelopment project, carefully focused on historical detail.

I’m definitely looking forward to a visit, but will interested travelers like me sustain the venture?

Big Spring—on Interstate 20 between Midland and Abilene—has a population of about 22,500. Tourism attractions include the city’s 400-acre Comanche Trail Park, the Heritage Museum, the Hangar 25 Air Museum, and Big Spring State Park.

Ryan says the hotel is counting on tourism traffic, but not exclusively.

“We hope first and foremost that we pick up a lot of the destination business—people who want to come and see something unique,” he says.

In addition, the hotel expects to draw business related to local institutions such as the Veterans Administration Hospital, the Alone USA petroleum refinery, and the local prison industry (the Federal Correctional Institution and the GEO Group’s four private prisons house about 5,500 inmates).

Ryan also notes the regional market—folks from places like Midland and Odessa who want to visit the hotel’s amenities, such as the Settles Grill.

“We think there are multiple different revenue streams, and the hotel will cater to different clientele,” he says.

Another likely contributor to business activity at the Hotel Settles is the natural resource that enabled Howard County rancher W.R. Settles to build the hotel in the first place, back in the 1920s: Oil.

Big Spring sits on the western side of the Cline Shale, a geologic formation that by some estimates contains as much as 30 billion barrels of recoverable oil—more than the prolific Bakken Formation of North Dakota or the Eagle Ford Shale of South Texas.

The Cline play is in its infancy, but energy development activity is gaining steam in Big Spring. Big Spring sales tax revenue was a record high last year, and this year is running 25 percent ahead of that, Mayor Tommy Duncan says.

When it comes to hotels, the city’s lodging tax revenue more than doubled from $495,000 in fiscal year 2010 to $1.145 million in fiscal 2012, says Debbie Wegman, coordinator of the Big Spring Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Duncan says the oil boom will be important to the Hotel Settles’ success.

“There’s a lot of activity and a lot of growth that will support it,” he says. “I’m not an economist, and it would be hard for me to predict what would happen without the oil boom. I believe at this point that it will support it, and I’m hopeful that in addition to the oil industry, we’ll be able to attract … some conventions and those types of things” to the Settles.

Wegman says the Hotel Settles is important to the revitalization of Big Spring’s downtown, which has seen new retailers setting up shop in recent months. The city is also investing more than $1 million to spruce up its Big Spring Municipal Auditorium, a 1930s historic theater downtown.

“It’s a three-year phased project,” she says. “And it’s going to be awesome.”

The Hotel Settles provides Big Spring with a comprehensive meeting facility with lodging, a restaurant, and meeting rooms, she says.

“It’s going to be just a real boom for people to come and visit,” Wegman says. “It’s not only going to be great for tourism, it’ll be a great place for meetings and conventions, and it’s real excitement for people in our community also. It’s a nice restaurant to go to.”

Mayor Duncan seconds that notion. He was impressed by a recent dinner at the Settles Grill.

“They asked for comments and recommendations,” Duncan recalls. “My wife and I and our two guests really enjoyed our meal and had no recommendations other than, ‘More of the same.’”

It all sounds promising to me, and I plan to be among the destination travelers checking into the Settles for a stay that’s rich in West Texas history and ambience.

Hopefully the resurrection of the Hotel Settles will be one of those serendipitous occasions where the right people, the right project, and the right economic climate coincide to create a lasting success story.

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Photos by Mark Knight/Courtesy of Hotel Settles.

If you’ve driven through Big Spring in the past few weeks, you probably noticed the red neon Hotel Settles sign, shining like a beacon over the city and the surrounding West Texas plains.

Developers flipped the switch on the sign—and on a new era for the Settles—on December 28 with the opening of the meticulously renovated hotel. The six-year, $30 million renovation resurrects an historic but long-neglected structure that sat vacant and deteriorating for 30 years.

“When we fired the sign up for the first time in 30 years, we could hear cars all over town honking,” says Brint Ryan, chairman of the Settles Hotel Development Company. “You can’t miss it.”

The 15-story hotel is the tallest building in Big Spring and served as a center of community activity for decades after it first opened in 1930. A Howard County rancher, W.R. Settles, built the hotel during the oil boom of the 1920s for $500,000, Ryan said. Abilene architect David Castle designed the building, which was one of several Art Deco hotels built in West Texas during the time period.

But with the onset of the Great Depression and the concurrent drop in oil prices, Settles couldn’t make the payments for the project, and he ended up losing both the hotel and his ranch, which he had put forth as collateral.

“So it was a financial disaster for them, but it was a magnificent hotel,” Ryan said.

In the following decades, the Settles changed ownership numerous times, and hosted many a local wedding reception, professional conference, service club meeting, and the like.

“But after 50 years of deferred maintenance, ownership changes, and failure to really keep the building up, it began to fall into decline,” Ryan said. “When I was growing up, by the ‘70s, it had deteriorated to the point to where it had become for all intents a flophouse, a house of ill repute.”

In 1980, the hotel closed, and the conventional wisdom was that it was likely gone for good. Various developers considered plans to rehabilitate the building—which at some point became city property over unpaid taxes—but they arrived at the same conclusion: The hotel was beyond repair.

It wasn’t until 2006 that Brint Ryan became involved. Ryan, a Big Spring native who graduated from Big Spring High School in 1982, is founder, chairman, and CEO of Ryan LLC, a big-time tax services firm based in Dallas.

Ryan says he got a call about a potential downtown Big Spring renovation project, which led to his interest in the Settles.

“I actually just fell in love with the property,” he said. “It’s a phenomenal building, but it was just about as close to total destruction as you can imagine.”

The decay was remarkable. Part of the roof had caved in. On one floor, the dead pigeons were piled waist-high, Ryan said. But he decided to buy the building from the city for $75,000, despite an appraised value of negative $250,000.

As plans began to take shape, the city ponied up a $3 million economic development incentive to get started, Ryan said. A year-long abatement project to remove lead paint and asbestos began in 2006, resulting in the removal of about 700 tons of debris.

“We just about filled up the city landfill with that stuff,” Ryan said.

The ensuing redevelopment project took five years, culminating in last month’s re-opening. Along with 65 guest rooms, the hotel has event and meeting spaces, a pool, a Jacuzzi, a fitness studio, the Settles Grill, and the Pharmacy Bar & Parlor.

Ryan said he was motivated to undertake the project because of the building’s qualities—“an architectural gem,” he marvels—and the opportunity to participate in an important community project in his hometown.

“And three, everybody I talked to, they said ‘Oh no, that can’t be done,’” Ryan said. “And anytime I’m told I can’t do it, my personality is to go do it, just to prove you wrong.”

Ryan is thrilled with the results. The renovations took into account the building’s original blueprints, and the National Park Service has accepted the hotel for its national register of historic places, he said.

“We restored it as close as possible to the original as you can imagine,” Ryan said. “W.R. Settles, if he walked in the lobby today, he’d recognize the place.”

—

Photos are by Mark Knight/Courtesy of Hotel Settles.

The renovation of the Briscoe-Garner Museum in Uvalde hit a rough patch recently when a fire broke out in the historic home.

But repairs from the December 11 fire are taking place in tandem with the renovation work, and museum officials hope the hiccup won’t delay the planned re-opening of the museum this spring.

Nobody was injured in the fire, and because the exhibits are stored for renovation, no items or historical artifacts were damaged, said Ben Wright, spokesman for the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History at UT Austin, which owns the museum.

The fire started when a heat gun was used near flammable materials. The fire department contained the fire quickly.

“We’re very hopeful that construction will be finished in March, and we will then install the exhibits and plan for a grand opening soon after,” Wright said. “In the near future there’s going to be a very fine museum here, a very effective public resource that tells the story of these two local figures.”

The $1.1 million renovation of the old Garner Museum began in January 2009. Much of the project has been related to improving the old structure, including foundation and asbestos-abatement work, Wright said. The museum is posting updates on its Facebook page.

Vice President John Nance “Cactus Jack” Garner lived in the home on North Park Street for more than 30 years. The museum first opened to the public in 1973 with exhibits focused on Garner’s life and career.

As part of the renovation, the second floor will be opened to the public for the first time, featuring exhibits related to Governor Dolph Briscoe.

“Governor Briscoe connects us with the narrative of the rest of our state, and Vice President Garner connects us with the national narrative,” Wright said. “It connects the local community in very special and meaningful ways with the state and national history.”

Be sure to check out the April issue of Texas Highways for a feature about visiting Uvalde.

One of the oldest tourism destinations in West Texas is up for sale.

Rock hounds have been making pilgrimages to the Woodward Ranch since the 1930s—and still do—to hunt for agates and gemstones on the 2,200-acre patch of prairies, mesas, and mountains, about 16 miles south of Alpine.

But after the 2011 death of Trey Woodward—the third generation Woodward to own the ranch—his widow Jan Woodward and other family members decided it was time to sell.

“It’s just too much for one woman to take care of,” Jan told me during a recent phone call. “This is what’s happening to farms and ranches all over. As people grow older and can’t continue to do the work, the children have moved away. The small family-owned farms and ranches are becoming a thing of the past. It’s like having dial-up Internet.”

Jan is ambivalent about the sale. She would be just as happy to stay. To complement the ranch’s tourism business, Jan leases the land to cattle ranchers and mule-deer hunters. Visitors can also hike around to view the wildlife or go horseback riding (on their own horses).

“I don’t want to move,” she says. “I love it here.”

Texas Ranger J.C. Bird homesteaded the ranch in 1884. His adopted sons, including Frank Woodward Sr., each inherited parcels of the original homestead.

It was Frank Sr. who realized the local geology was of interest to rock hunters—especially the red plume agate found only there. He opened the ranch to tourists in the mid- to late-1930s. (Big Bend National Park opened a few years later, in 1944).

In the late 1940s, National Geographic featured the Woodward Ranch in a rock-hunting article, Jan says.

“It’s a rock hound’s paradise,” she says. “It’s all igneous, formed by a small volcano. The remnants of it are still here. It’s known today as Eagle Peak.”

Despite the potential for a sale, Jan recently hired a foreman and has made improvements to the ranch to accommodate visitors, including improvements to the ranch’s RV and tent camping areas.

There’s a new meet-and-greet area for campers, a new restroom and shower, a new telescope for stargazing, and improvements to the two cabins. Also, as of January 1, the ranch is now open six days a week, up from three days.

“We want our guests to have a good time and be comfortable here,” Jan says. “In today’s economic uncertainties, who knows if (the ranch) is ever going to sell?”

Jan says she’d like to see a buyer keep the ranch open to rock hounds, but there’s no guarantee.

“If you want to come see it, now’s the time,” she says.

The Boquillas border crossing in Big Bend National Park is set to re-open.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said Friday that the crossing will open 30 days after its final ruling is published. A precise date wasn’t immediately available.

The federal government closed the Boquillas crossing of the Rio Grande in 2002 in the aftermath of 9/11.

Big Bend National Park has pushed to re-open the crossing to foster both tourism opportunities and resource management cooperation with its Mexican counterparts.

Boquillas will be the only port of entry between Presidio and Del Rio, which are about 300 miles apart. For visitors entering Mexico, the crossing will provide access to the town of Boquillas and the protected areas of Maderas del Carmen, Ocampo, and Cañon de Santa Elena.

In their joint announcement, the National Park Service and U.S. Customs and Border Protection said the “decision to open the state of the art border crossing is based on extensive CBP analysis, consultation with our Mexican counterparts, and is part of our ongoing commitment to ensure that we continue to take steps to enhance security along our borders.”

Visitors will cross the Rio Grande via a rowboat operated by a concessionaire. The port of entry will be open to pedestrians from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday. Cars won’t be allowed to cross.

Crossers entering Mexico from the United States will be required to have a Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative approved document.

Crossers from Mexico to the United States will go through entry procedures at a  National Park Service interagency facility. The facility will have two kiosks for visitors to transmit their documentation to Customs and Border Protection and participate in an interview via a remote link, DHS said in its news release.

National Park Service rangers and Border Patrol agents will provide security in the area, and National Park Service personnel will staff the interagency facility.

Big Bend National Park’s plan to re-open the Boquillas border crossing to Mexico is still pending, nearly two years after the park proposed the idea.

Park spokesman David Elkowitz tells TH that the plan is still in the works, but there’s no set schedule. The federal government closed the Rio Grande rowboat crossing at Boquillas in 2002 in the aftermath of 9/11.

Big Bend wants to re-open the crossing because it provides tourism opportunities and better access for park officials to work with their Mexican counterparts on natural resource management projects, Elkowitz says.

Before the crossing closed, the tiny town of Boquillas del Carmen drew visitors into Mexico with a couple of bar and restaurant establishments and tourist activities like horseback rides.

If the crossing is re-opened, Park Service personnel would man the crossing to provide information for tourists, Elkowitz says. The Department of Homeland Security would handle security checks via a kiosk operated by the Big Bend Border Patrol Sector.

The park concessionaire, Forever Resorts, would operate the johnboat to row crossers back and forth, at least for the first year, Elkowitz says.

The future of the Boquillas crossing may be up in the air, but tourism activities in the Big Bend region abound. Check out the Texas Highways Big Bend issue this February for inspiration.

Move over, Cowboys Stadium—Texas has a new premier sports facility.

I know, I know. It’s not a fair comparison. Football will always have a special place in many Texans’ hearts. But the opening race this weekend at the new Circuit of the Americas, just southeast of Austin, definitely put the state on the Formula One map.

Admittedly, I went to the event knowing almost nothing about Formula One racing (aside from what I learned watching the documentary Senna a few months back). But I quickly found out a few things:

1. Bring ear protection–no joke, those engines are LOUD. It’s like part of the challenge is to defeat your earplugs.
2. The only way to tell who’s driving is to memorize who’s wearing what helmet, since multiple drivers on the same team may drive identical cars.
3. European guys all seem to have good hair. Go figure.

Our view from Turn 15–close enough to make you think, “I hope these guys know what they’re doing!”

I also expected more of a culture clash, with the casual come-as-you-are attitude of Austin rubbing wrong against the international jet-set crowd that follows F1. But it was soon apparent that this motorsports mecca becomes a world all its own, with about as many people wearing gear for their favorite Texas sports teams as there are others decked out in racing team colors or their national flags—and all of them in high spirits for this inaugural event.

The sprawling facilities can accommodate about 120,000 fans, or a crowd about the size of the whole city of Waco. By the good graces of someone in the family who won tickets, I had a seat in the third row of the “premium grandstand” on Turn 15—close enough to think maybe the drivers could see us as they slow down to take the curve.

For a seemingly exclusive event, I was pleasantly surprised to see how open and accessible the course was. Though the main grandstand and other premium seats are, naturally, closed off to most, there were general admission areas and other open spots for anyone to see the action from different angles. We moved around during some of the qualifying races just to see what there was to see, like the tower and the pedestrian bridge (which intentionally has any view of the track blocked off to keep people moving, although foot traffic bottlenecked here nonetheless). Swapping seats with friends at Turn 4 during some of the Ferrari and Porsche races on Saturday gave us a sweeping, colorful view of a winding stretch of the course.

The landmark tower of the Circuit of the Americas offers a bird’s-eye view of the track for a $35 fee.

Aside from the bridge bottlenecks, the only other place where we hit a snag was in the vendor areas. I was blissfully unaware of this on Saturday, when I managed to sneak in some food and avoided spending a single dollar at the track. On Sunday I went for a tasty chicken-in-a-waffle “taco” from the local Lucky J’s food truck, which was one of the shorter lines—and I still waited half an hour for food, then another half hour in a seaprate drink line.  Of course, the food and drinks were pricey, but not as much as I feared—most things seemed to be at least double what they’d cost outside the race (ever the pessimist, I was expecting quadruple). Meeting for lunch with friends at the race also became impossible since cell phone reception also was spotty to nonexistent, depending on the density of the crowd.

On the bright side, the weather was perfect (as long as you remembered to bring sunscreen), and the massive traffic delays feared before the race never materialized. Having attended other big events in Austin, such as the Austin City Limits Music Festival, I can say the logistics of getting in and out of Circuit of the Americas seemed to flow much more smoothly. The only traffic I encountered was the half-hour line waiting to get into the park-and-ride on Saturday. I was shocked to arrive at the park-and-ride at 9 a.m. on race day to find no line waiting to get in, so I was on a bus and at the track in about 30 minutes.

A view of the main grandstand area with the start/finish line, winners’ podium (in the middle with the checkered background), and pit area (bottom level) from a general admission area.

FanVision was my electronic “cheat sheet” for learning which driver was in which car.

At the main U.S. Grand Prix race on Sunday, the enthusiasm of the crowd reached its height. By then, I could spot the top four or five cars and got to see a couple of drivers overtake another on the curve in front of us. When Lewis Hamilton passed leader Sebastian Vettel’s Red Bull car on Lap 42, just a couple of turns before our seats, you could feel the excitement ripple through the crowd. Then it was a game of people waving their hands to cheer Hamilton on every time he passed our section until he took the checkered flag.

We waited for the drivers to wave to the crowd on their victory lap before hustling for the exit. I dreaded the wait for the buses to take us back to the park-and-ride as about 117,000 people exited the grounds, but the lines kept moving and we were on a bus just 30 minutes after exiting the gates. Friends who left after the podium ceremony told me they waited about an hour. Not too bad, considering the scale of the event.

All in all, it seemed that the weekend went pretty smoothly for most folks. It will be interesting to see how much money came to Central Texas this weekend in the form of hotel rooms, meals and so on. I’m not sure if I’ll become a regular follower of Formula One racing, but now I certainly understand what all the F1 buzz is about.

Tearing up the floor at Wurstfest. If you can’t polka or two-step, just wait for the next Chicken Dance.

It’s become a yearly tradition for us to head down to Wurstfest in New Braunfels to share the joys of beer, sausage and polka with a few friends. Both the Longhorns and the Aggies had won football games when we went this Saturday, so the grounds were extra-packed with jovial fans–and a few in burnt orange even offering congratulations to those in maroon after their team beat No. 1 Alabama. Usually we’d park somewhere in town and trek on foot to the festival, but this time we caught the Wurst Wagen from the park-and-ride at the New Braunfels VFW, which was worth the money: $20 each for parking, admission, a ride to the front gate and some drink tickets, which saved us from standing in a couple of long lines at the event.

Once inside, we headed to the food pavilion for dinner. I went in with a strategy to try at least a little of a lot of different offerings: a Wurst-kabob (with five different types of sausage and a dinner roll), bratwurst hot dog, fried sauerkraut, fried pickles, fried cheesecake, and a kolache. These went fast among our group of six people, and when we were full, we agreed that we should come back next year to try the things we didn’t get around to (I’ll get you next time, apple pancakes…next time!).

Aside from the food area and the dance hall, another popular stop for a lot of people was the hat vendor. I think this photo of my new headgear is a perfect testament to the great time we had. Yes, the wings actually flap. Even the cashiers at Buc-ee’s on our way home were impressed.

In January issue of Texas Highways, which we’re putting to bed before the Thanksgiving holiday, my colleague Nola McKey suggests an action-packed 2012 itinerary for those of you who adore a good festival.

I’m particularly interested in the upcoming Whooping Crane Festival in Port Aransas (February 23-26)—not only because I love Port A, but also because I admire the birds’ tenaciousness and survival skills. After all, while whooping cranes are still on the state and federal Endangered Species List, their flock size should reach record levels this year. Once numbering only 21 birds in the entire planet, whoopers in 2012 are expected to number somewhere around 290, according to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Biologist Tom Stehn.

Texas’ winter flock of whooping cranes spend the summer in northwestern Canada, at Wood Buffalo National Park, and usually travel to Texas through a migration corridor that crosses over the Texas Panhandle and the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. Then the birds head south, where their flight path takes them over Waco, Austin, and Victoria before arriving at Aransas National Wildlife Refuge in November.

A quick phone call to the refuge just now confirmed their arrival, and the numbers are looking good, folks. The park official with whom I spoke said they hadn’t conducted a formal survey yet, but they’re estimating that 75% of the population has already arrived, with more trickling in every day. They’ll stay in Texas through March or April, depending on weather conditions.

I’m fascinated by the fact that it’s possible (not likely, but possible nonetheless) to spy these birds during migration—perhaps even in the skies above Austin. They tend to migrate in small groups of four or five birds, and they often stop at wetlands environments or agricultural fields en route to the coast. While they resemble sandhill cranes, whooping cranes are larger—more than four feet tall (the tallest birds in North America!)— and are solid white, except for black wing tips that are visible only when they’re flying.

I hope to get to the Port A region sometime this winter to see them. See
www.fws.gov/southwest/refuges/texas/aransas/

Eastland sits next to Interstate 20, about 1.5 hours west of Fort Worth (and about the same distance east of Abilene). The town square — anchored by the Eastland County Courthouse — lies one mile from the Interstate, and just off the square, on Lamar Street, is where you’ll find the Majestic Theater. The city owns the theater and it shows current films four nights a week — Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. Even if you don’t make time for a movie at the Majestic, take a few minutes to drive to the square and see the theater. Walk around the corner to visit the restored Connellee Hotel (now the civic center) or stop in at the historic Eastland Hotel (next door to the Majestic). Note that you can see the Majestic’s multi-story marquee in the September Texas Highways cover photo.