Please explain why Marfa, TX appeals to so many people in Austin. (Santa Fe: low income, vacation home)

[tfresca]

Is the town welcoming to minorities? I know not all paces in Texas are.

[ace3010]

born in marfa but parents relocated to san antonio when my two brothers and I were young ones. Do miss marfa at times, like the openess , friendly marfites(people). Don't know if my young (older by now) friends still live in marfa. One on this days will visit Marfa. Have cousins in Odessa. Those marfa lights are a sight to see. One of my Aunts relatives was in the film"Giant" Old highway 90 back then, from marfa to san antonio. Marfa is a small, little, big town. It's out of sight but not out of my mind.

[nmdesert]

Originally Posted by FueledByBlueBell

I posted on the Austin board...I know that it is super trendy and popular, but I'm just wondering why?...Please tell me what I'm missing!

You said much on the appeal of Marfa in 3 words: Austin, trendy, popular.

I like both places in their own ways, but not for the usual rehash we're told. Marfa mixes world-class art, wannabe art/people, and real west TX people - and much less traffic and humidity than Austin. Must be quite the escape, let alone from crowded SF, NYC, etc. The worst aspect is how many Austinites feel some need to bring too much Austin with them, instead of enjoying a different place on its own terms.

Marfa is what most everyone here says, plus the legendary light and climate of the high desert. You can get that same effect for hundreds of miles of NM, AZ, NV...but not much of the same art culture. It isn't Santa Fe - too much friendly Texas and SW there, which SF mostly lacks.

It adds dimension to meet Marfa locals (easy to spot...not trendy) and the newbies / visitors (also easy to spot). Sun-Tues are dead, most places closed...make lodging reservations weeks in advance, because you aren't the only one visiting the limited # of high $ accomodations. And bring $$, nothing's cheap there.

Marfa is small, so it's easy to see much of it in 1-2 days, Wed-Sat...first a drive-by survey, then one can walk the parts that you're more interested in. To tour Chinati, add 1/2 to 1 full day to your time.

Go for it!

But don't try to squeeze in the other places "nearby" (Terlingua, Big Bend, Alpine, etc) in the same trip, except to drive through enroute. You can do those later...the key is to soak in the great mix of culture and landscape in Marfa.

[austinnative69]

Marfa. What your town would look like if it was run by NPR.

[nmdesert]

Originally Posted by austinnative69

Marfa. What your town would look like if it was run by NPR.

Good point...some good, bad, and indifferent. That NPR voice, every other sentence beginning with, "So, ...".

[cBach]

The Marfa lights is the main attraction, which is just the reflection and refraction of lights off a rural highway. Since the air is so clear in the high desert, you can see lights from a car 20 miles away. Seeing it is a bit mystifying, even though you know it's just headlights on a distant highway.

The climate is dry and there are some cool artsy things. A lot of times in the winter when it's rainy and cold here, it's sunny and mild in Marfa. In the summer it is hot in Marfa but it has very low humidity and cools off substantially at night. So it's really a great place to visit all year and the weather is comparably better than Austin.

[TexasHorseLady]

Originally Posted by cBach

The Marfa lights is the main attraction, which is just the reflection and refraction of lights off a rural highway. Since the air is so clear in the high desert, you can see lights from a car 20 miles away. Seeing it is a bit mystifying, even though you know it's just headlights on a distant highway.

The climate is dry and there are some cool artsy things. A lot of times in the winter when it's rainy and cold here, it's sunny and mild in Marfa. In the summer it is hot in Marfa but it has very low humidity and cools off substantially at night. So it's really a great place to visit all year and the weather is comparably better than Austin.

Really? From the Texas State Historical Association website:

The first historical record of them recalls that in 1883 a young cowhand, Robert Reed Ellison, saw a flickering light while he was driving cattle through Paisano Pass and wondered if it was the campfire of Apache Indians. He was told by other settlers that they often saw the lights, but when they investigated they found no ashes or other evidence of a campsite. Joe and Sally Humphreys, also early settlers, reported their first sighting of the lights in 1885. Cowboys herding cattle on the prairies noticed the lights and in the summer of 1919 rode over the mountains looking for the source, but found nothing. World War I observers feared that the lights were intended to guide an invasion. During World War II pilots training at the nearby Midland Army Air Field outside Marfa looked for the source of the elusive lights from the air, again with no success.


"

[wxf848]

Originally Posted by TexasHorseLady

Really? From the Texas State Historical Association website:

The first historical record of them recalls that in 1883 a young cowhand, Robert Reed Ellison, saw a flickering light while he was driving cattle through Paisano Pass and wondered if it was the campfire of Apache Indians. He was told by other settlers that they often saw the lights, but when they investigated they found no ashes or other evidence of a campsite. Joe and Sally Humphreys, also early settlers, reported their first sighting of the lights in 1885. Cowboys herding cattle on the prairies noticed the lights and in the summer of 1919 rode over the mountains looking for the source, but found nothing. World War I observers feared that the lights were intended to guide an invasion. During World War II pilots training at the nearby Midland Army Air Field outside Marfa looked for the source of the elusive lights from the air, again with no success.


"

I don't claim to know the "truth" of the Marfa lights, but I'm pretty sure most of them are car lights. There's a string of them repeating in the same place. That, presumably, is the highway. I visited the viewing area in early darkness and saw plenty of lights there. I visited again hours later after midnight and there were very few. I did see a mysterious light or two to the left of the highway. FM 169 is at lower elevations and partly in a steep valley, so I don't think conditions are favorable for seeing lights from that road, but I suppose it's possible. I seem to remember those lights to the left as being near a radio tower, but it's been about 10 years so I may not remember correctly. I don't know if that radio tower lines up with any distant highways. I'd like to go back and have another look.

I do think that most of the lights that people were looking at in the evening were car lights along US 67 in the distant mountains. The appear and disappear and reappear in a string, as cars go across ridges and valleys. I also saw other lights that seem mysterious, but I'm uncertain as to the facts or positions all these years later. My point is that there may be mysterious lights, and I may have seen them, but I think the main attraction for casual viewers in the early evening is distant car lights.

[zonablue]

Because it, like Austin, if full of liberal Democrats.

[wehotex]

Originally Posted by tfresca

Is the town welcoming to minorities? I know not all paces in Texas are.

Yes. Very. The local folk are mostly Mex-American and the artists are your liberal transplant Anglo artist types and artist wanna-bes.