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| A historical
panorama is a main feature of the Festival. This picture is a composite that represents the relative location of the individual scenes, shown below, of the panorama. These all line the South side of a grassy field along Whipkey Drive. |
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| Before the
white man came, or the Spanish explorers, before the Comanches and Kiowas,
maybe before any humans, there were buffalo. Indians had co-existed
with them for maybe thousands of years. A few white men slaughtered
95% of them in the decade of the 1870's, mostly for the profit from sale
of the hides.
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| I am not sure
how the tree fits into the history, but it is pretty. The cactus would be saguaro, found more plentifully as you move West in Texas. The most plentiful local cactus is the prickly pear cactus, seen with the stagecoach and the wind turbine, below. The Spanish Conquistador is reminiscent of the Spanish explorers, and of their followers who settled this land. |
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| Saguaro flanks
a Cowboy and a Cowgirl, who flank a windmill. Windmills have changed from wood to metal, but are still found plentifully in West Texas. Jackrabbits are some of the most common West Texas inhabitants. Cotton bales can be seen in fall by the hundreds in the gin yards of West Texas. Oil was found in Howard County in 1927, and drilling rigs are familiar sites to local folks. Those who see them on their own property are those who love them best. Ranching (mostly cattle), farming (mostly cotton) and oil production are mainstays of local economy. |
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| Mr. Jack Rabbit
returns for a visit. Beside him is a prickly pear cactus. Did you know that this is the Texas State Plant, as of legislation in 1995? The bluebonnet is the state flower, but this is the state plan. "Cactus Jack", John Nance Garner of Uvalde TX, became Vice President, and it was in his honor that the plant was named. The stagecoach is reminiscent of the thousands of stagecoaches that was
for years the main public transportation. |
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| A fourth
mainstay of the economy of this area is the railroad industry. In
1881, when the railroad reached the vicinity of the big spring, there were
none to few permanent settlers here though people camped by the spring. When a division point was made near the water source, the stimulus began to cause a city to grow here. Because of the big spring, the town was named Big Spring. |
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| When the driller left a well, the pumper came to set the jacks. These are not quite as common as jackrabbits here. | |
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| For twenty-five
years (1952-1977) Webb Air Force Base operated in Big Spring. This figure represents a fighter jet like those at Webb. |
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| Before Webb
AFB, there was the Big Spring Bombardier School. Before that were the commercial airliners. Before the airliners, the barnstormers. "I'll get you yet, Red Baron!" |
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| More prickly
pear cactus. And a new kind of wind machine. Located on the mesa to the South of Big Spring, a series of these wind turbine generators route enough electricity into the grid to replace all that Howard County uses. |
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