Great Secrets of Our National Parks
Some of the best findings by accidental anthropologists and studied experts.
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By: TW Editors 06/01/2008
Big Bend National Park, TX
Shopping for History
The convenience stores open year-round at Big Bend National Park in Texas include Chisos Basin, Rio Grande and Castolon.
None of those sound like anything out of the ordinary, but that last one, Castolon, is actually a historic trading post.
The store traces back to 1901, when Cipriano Hernandez opened the first store in the area, operating in what is known today as the Alvino House (Alvino Ybarra and his family moved into it in 1918, when it no longer housed the store). Hernandez sold it in 1914 to rancher Clyde Buttrill, who eventually moved it into a larger building, known today as Old Castolon. Then Howard Perry, owner of the Chisos Mining Company in nearby Terlingua, partnered up with Wayne Cartledge and bought the Castolon store in 1919. They called their enterprise La Harmonia Company, dealing mainly in trading furs, hides and skins until the 1940s.
In 1921, the owners moved La Harmonia to a new barracks building that the army built but never used, which is where you will find the store today. The National Park Service acquired La Harmonia’s holdings in 1961, and it operates the store today, albeit catering to tourists instead of area ranchers and miners, who left ages ago.
We think getting a dose of history with your groceries makes Castolon well worth the trip.
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