Terlingua, TX

Terlingua is a mining district and census-designated place in southwestern Brewster County, Texas, United States. Terlingua is located near the Rio Grande and the villages of Lajitas and Study Butte, Texas, as well as the Mexican state of Chihuahua. The only remnants of the mining days are a ghost town of the Howard Perry-owned Chisos Mining Company and several nearby capped and abandoned mines: the California Hill, the Rainbow, the 248, and the Study Butte mines. Rafting and canoeing on the Rio Grande, mountain biking, camping, hiking, and motorcycling are some of the outdoor activities favored by tourists. Education started with the 1909–1910 school year in a "tent-house".

By 1923 the school consisted of 53 students taught in one adobe classroom. That mix gives Terlingua a clear local shape within Texas, with older layers still visible in current places. The local scoop is a place whose streets, landmarks, and institutions keep its earlier story close to the present. The mineral terlinguaite was first found in the vicinity of California Hill. " The cinnabar was apparently known to Native Americans, who supposedly used its brilliant red color for pictographs. A man named Jack Dawson reportedly produced the first mercury from Terlingua in 1888, but the district got off to a slow start.