J. C. Bird

Calamity Creek rises southeast of Ranger Peak, six and a half miles southwest of Alpine, on the flank of the long-extinct Paisano volcano, and runs south-southeast sixty-two miles to Chalk Draw and on to Maravillas Creek in Big Bend National Park. Springs keep its upper reaches flowing all year, lined with willow, cottonwood, Mexican walnut and soapberry, and the cliffs above shelter red-tailed hawks. The name comes from a flash flood early in the twentieth century that swept away an adobe house on the Nevill Ranch, about twenty miles south of Alpine.

What the plaque says

J. C. Bird Julius Canselor Bird (1863-1925) was born in Round Mountain (Blanco Co.), and came to west Texas at age 18 as a Texas ranger, protecting crews during construction of the transcontinental railroad. J.C. then homesteaded and ranched on ten sections of land south of Alpine, along the drainage of Calamity and Ash Creeks. In 1885, he married America Walker, and the two raised Durham cattle on their ranch. J.C. later opened Alpine's first Buick dealership. He was a charter member of First Baptist Church, and was instrumental in its financing and building. He was a founding member of the Paisano Baptist Encampment. After J. C. passed away on March 8, 1925, Mrs. Bird had a home built on Lockhart Avenue and moved to town. (2013)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Museum of the Big Bend — 0.6 mi
  The museum of the Big Bend region and northern Mexico on the Sul Ross State University campus in Alpine, back since 2007 in its native-stone building of 1937.
• Marfa Lights Viewing Area — 15 mi
  The roadside viewing area on US 90 nine miles east of Marfa, where people gather after dark to watch the horizon toward the Chinati Mountains for the Marfa lights.
• Chihuahuan Desert Nature Center and Botanical Gardens — 16 mi
  The Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute's grounds south of Fort Davis, with an 18-acre botanical garden, a cactus museum and trails into the desert foothills.
• Fort Davis National Historic Site — 22 mi
  A frontier post of 1854 to 1891 on the San Antonio-El Paso Road, garrisoned after the Civil War by Black regiments, with its buildings restored to their 1880 look.

More markers nearby

• First Baptist Church of Alpine — steps away
• Texas Confederate Colonel Henry P. Brewster (1816-1884) — 0.2 mi
• Texas Confederate General Lawrence "Sul" Ross — 0.6 mi
• Burgess' Water Hole — 0.8 mi