The Last Leg

Near the Continental Divide.

Outside El Paso.


There is dispute about how Marfa, Tx (pop. 2,121) got its name. Some say that the town is named for Marfa Strogoff, a character in Jules Verne's Michael Strogoff. Others claim that a railroad executive's wife was reading The Brothers Karamazov as her train rumbled through West Texas, and that she suggested naming the town after Marfa, the brothers' nanny/housekeeper.

I would bet on Dostoevsky.


Marfa got an artistic pedigree when the minimalist Donald Judd moved there in 1971. He bought up an abandoned army base just out of town and installed his and his friends' work in the converted hangars and officer's quarters. He also bought many buildings downtown for studio space and permanent displays of his work.


Two of these buildings.


The galleries were all closed, but here is one piece of a 1/2 mile-long series of Judd's untitled concrete work, on the old army site. You can see some of the barracks in the background.

A permanent art installation about 20 miles out of town, alone in the desert.


It's called "Prada Marfa." It's by Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset.

My hotel, El Paisano, housed an old buffalo.

In 1956, it also housed the cast and crew of Giant, which was filmed in Marfa. James Dean stayed down the hall from me.

For over 100 years, people have reported seeing strange colored spheres in the desert southeast of Marfa.
Theories abound: extraterrestrial spacecraft, experimental aircraft, ball lightning from expanding and contracting quartz crystals. Unsolved Mysteries had a field day; I didn't see anything.
I want to believe.

Huevos rancheros at Tacos Del Norte.

Train on US 90/67.

Surreally home, 5:30.

Welcoming Party.