January 14, 2022
For our 20TH EPISODE(!), Chris talks with Wendy Little, Director of the Texas Mountain Trail Region, and Stewart Ramser, publisher of the Big Bend & Texas Mountains Travel Guide.
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Transcript for “The Texas Mountain Trail & the Big Bend Travel Guide”:
Intro
Welcome to the heart of the Big Bend. It’s time to kick back, put your feet up, grab your favorite beverage or snack as we discussed, declare, proclaim, publicize and articulate about the wonders, magic, beauty, music and happenings here in the area known as the Big Bend of Texas.
Chris Ruggia
Hello welcome and thank you for joining us again for heart of the Big Bend. This is a podcast and radio show coming to you every other week about visiting the beautiful Big Bend of Texas. Specifically, we will cover what’s happening in Alpine, an incredibly friendly, small town nestled in a desert mountain valley at the heart of the Big Bend region. With easy day trips from Alpine, you can take in everything this amazing region has to offer.
I’m Chris Ruggia, Director of Tourism for the City of Alpine, and with me today, we’re talking about the Texas Mountain Trail region with Wendy Little, Executive Director. Hi, Wendy.
Wendy Little
Hi, Chris.
Chris R
We’re also talking about one of their flagship publications, let’s say, The Big Bend and Texas Mountains Travel Guide with the publisher Stewart Ramser. Hi, Stewart.
Stewart Ramser
Good morning.
Chris R
So glad to have you both with us today. Wendy, we’ll start with the general question, what is the Texas Mountain Trail Region?
Wendy L
Well, the Texas Mountain Trail Region is part of the Texas Heritage Trails program, which is under the Texas Historical Commission. That’s a lot of information there, just in one. But basically what it is, is a Texas Heritage Trail, excuse me, Heritage Tourism program. There’s 10 trail regions in Texas, and this was an initiative by John Connolly back in 1968 as a way to get travelers off the highways and into the more rural communities.
Chris R
Initially, actually a highway driving tour.
Wendy L
Driving tours. Exactly. And they put up the signs. Everybody’s seeing the blue signs on the highways, right?
Chris R
Yeah, we have the mountain trail, the Forge Trail…
Wendy L
…the Hill Country, Lakes. Yes, that’s true. Eventually the program never really blossomed back then. The signs stayed up. But in the ’90s, the program started to come back online under the Texas Historical Commission. They came back one by one. And now we have full 10 operating travel trails that are regions now based on counties. They’re separated. So we have six counties in our region.
Chris R
And that’s the Big Bend, Brewster, Jeff Davis, and Presidio Counties. But then it goes up to the Northwest from there, right?
Wendy L
Yes. We are the furthest, most western region, which also includes Culverson, Hudspith, and El Paso Counties.
Chris R
So it goes all the way, say, from Presidio to El Paso.
Wendy L
Yes. We’ve got two national parks in our region with the Guadalupe Mountains National Park and Big Bend National Park.
Chris R
So you get all the national parks?
Wendy L
We have all of them, yes. Some people have National Seashores and other things, but we are the only region with the national parks.
Chris R
Excellent. And so your mission is about… It’s heritage tourism, and it’s the Historical Commission. So this is a focus on history, interpretation, and things like that.
Wendy L
Preservation, yes.
Chris R
But also tourism. And that’s where this publication comes in that Stewart’s here to talk to us about, the Big Bend and Texas Mountains Travel Guide. Now, I got to Alpine mid ’90s, and this was an all-volunteer publication. So this publication has been going on even longer than Texas Mountain Trail region has. But then you guys took the reins and kept it going at a certain point. SStewart, tell us a little bit about this publication.
Stewart R
Sure. It’s been around, as you mentioned, a long time for more than 35 years. It’s always been free. The funds for it, the profits, have gone different organizations over the years. It got associated with the Texas Mountain Trail when I became part of it around 2013. It is a regional guide, it covers all the cities within the Texas Mountain Trail. It does have some content outside of the region, but for the most part, it does a great job of showcasing and talking about what’s going on in Big Bend National Park and also around the trail, the Texas Mountain Trail region.
Chris R
Yeah, I would say that, from, almost from its beginning, this has been the first public… If you want to come out to the area, this is a must have. This is the first, and one you want to look at and one you want to keep with you as you’re learning your way around, visiting for the first time. And I know that Alpine Visitor Center gives out lots of these. It’s one of the primary info request when people have information requests, they request these to get mailed out.
Stewart R
Yes, we print and distribute almost 90,000 or right around 90,000 copies. Then they go throughout the region, but also across the state. The people can pick them up at all the Texas TXDOT Travel Centers when they’re coming into Texas. It is widely distributed throughout the state and a lot of different visitor centers as well. And then very thoroughly throughout the region. It’s also online.
Chris R
Yes. And what’s the web address for the guide?
Stewart R
Bigbendtravelguide.com.
Chris R
I would suggest folks that aren’t in the area, go there first and then you can almost take your pick from the the visitor centers of the communities listed in the guide, if you want to get your copy or as you’re traveling through the state or into the state, you could stop at those TXDOT travel centers and pick one up there as well. When do they come out? They come out once a year. Is that right?
Stewart R
Yes. In the fall, usually it runs. It’s an annual publication. So this year came out a little bit later, but look for it usually in the fall of each year.
Chris R
Gotcha. This publication, like so many, is advertiser-supported. And I know that from early days, the advertisers in the book were as big or almost as big as the content as the editorial, because you get a little picture of what businesses are active in the area as you’re looking through the ads. So that’s something if I say I’m having a business to reach the visitor to the Big Bend region, which, as we know, so many of them see the guide, what would they need to do? And when should they, I’m assuming they contact you, and when should they do that?
Stewart R
Any time. I mean, we’re working already on this year’s guide that will come out at the end the year. And if you go to the website, they’ll be able to reach me through that. And, yeah, we’re working on it already for the next one.
Chris R
Excellent. I mean, especially for the local radio listeners, if you’ve got a business that wants to reach our visitors, absolutely go to that website. What’s that address again, Stewart?
Stewart R
Bigbendtravelguide.com.
Chris R
Yeah, and reach out to Stewart and see about getting an ad in the book. Now, this new publication has a special feature in it that it’s never had before. That’s a Texas Mountain Trail project. Wendy, I’m opening this guide, and what’s new? What’s special and new in this book here?
Wendy L
So inserted within the guide is the Texas Mountain Trail Passport. And this is just like a real passport, except for it only includes locations, destinations within the Texas Mountain Trail that participants, when they pick it up, they go to the locations within the passport, and each location will have a stamp. So when you get… There’s 25 historic sites, museums, parks, locations, anything and everything that’s heritage related in the Texas Mountain Trail. So they get their stamps. And when you get 20 stamps, you can mail in your passport to me, and all that information is within the passport, and you get a prize. Of course, we’ll send your passport back to you because it’s like a little keepsake. Then the passport runs for two years. We have a big region, so we give you plenty of time to fill your stamps and send in your passport to win your prize. After the deadline in December 31st, 2023, I will take all the names and shuffle them around and we’ll draw for a grand prize. It will be a fabulous Mountain Trail getaway.
Chris R
All right. Well, and yeah, just flipping through this passport, you really would want to use this as your itinerary builder, because every spot in this guide is really a must-visit for our region. Just in Alpine alone, we have the Visitor Center, the Historic Holland Hotel. That’s a Trost and Trost designed building. There’s one of our collection of Trost hotels, landmark hotels through our region. The Museum of the Big Bend, of course, as I highly suggest. The Travel Guide is the first book you should pick up, and then the first place you should stop when you get to the region is the Museum of the Big Bend.
Wendy L
I agree.
Chris R
Ten we go on from there to the Gage and Marathon, of course, the National Park, Terlingua and Study Butte, Lajitas, and that’s just Brewster County, and it covers all six. So, yeah, every place is worth a stop for sure.
Wendy L
And in the front of the passport, when you pull out your passport from the guide or wherever you’ve picked up your passport, there’s a QR code. You can scan that, and it’ll take you to mountaintrailadventures.com. You can also just type that into your browser if you want to check it out. There you’ll have more extensive descriptions of the locations. We have links to the locations, so if you want to check out Museum of the Big Bend before you go to look at their exhibits or see in what order you want to do things, you can find out more like that. And there’s also Google Maps links to help people find the places. The website is not an interactive, so you really… You do have to get your physical passport stamped. The website is for informational purposes. And on that, mountaintrailadventures.com, you’ll also find our blog and some other information about Texas Mountain Trail.
Chris R
Right. So if you’re interested in this passport, the best thing to do is get yourself a copy of the Big Bend and Texas Mountain Travel Guide. If you don’t have one in available to you immediately, you can go to that mountaintrailadventures.com address. That should give you the spots where you would know, like right when I get to town, I want to stop and get my passport. You’ll know the locations that you can get them.
Wendy L
Yes.
Chris R
Excellent. It looks like a really fun project for visitors to take.
Wendy L
It’s super fun. I have people already wanting to get out and fill their passports. I mean, I think people really like things like this. Some of the other trails, regions have done a passport as well. This is our first one. So we’re really excited to start getting the passports in, giving away prizes, and just encouraging people to get out there, have fun, see some of our historic sites and parks, and just experience the mountain trail.
Chris R
Yeah. Excellent. There’s a couple of different pretty big projects that the Texas Mountain Trail Region works on, the Travel Guide, and then this brand new passport program. And there’s a couple of other new or larger activities you do, and Authentic Texas Magazine is one of them. I want to shout out to Stewart. This was, I think, a brainchild of him to help you guys raise funds when your state funding was in flux, let’s say.
Wendy L
That is true. Seven trail regions out of the 10 formed an LLC when we were indeed in danger of losing our funding. We were encouraged to find other ways. Some people did trade shows, some people had a little sales shop on their websites or whatever. But we formed this magazine. Authentic Texas is the heritage travel… Sorry. The Heritage magazine of Texas. And we focus on the people, places, things – authentic things of Texas. Each issue has a theme. For instance, the current magazine that’s out right now is Outlaws. It is statewide. Each article will contain information on something that is actually visitable. So if it’s Outlaws, there might be somewhere where something happened with Bonnie and Clyde or whatever. So we tell the story and people can actually go visit.
Chris R
Oh, that’s fantastic. So how do I get a copy if I want to read this latest issue?
Wendy L
Well, you can visit authentictexas.com and subscribe, or they are also in visitor centers, the travel information centers, the same as the travel guide and various locations for sale.
Chris R
So if you’re in the area or coming through, I know you can stop at the visitor center, the Alpine Visitor Center.
Wendy L
Yes, I actually am the delivery person for my region for the for the Authentic Texas magazine. So I take them to hotels, visitor centers.
Chris R
I know. I’ve seen them at the Holland Hotel.
Wendy L
Yeah, they have them at the Holland. The Paisano in Marfa, their Visitor Center. I mean, they’re pretty much everywhere. Anybody that’ll take them, I’ll give them some so that they can hand them out to guests.
Chris R
And that’s a statewide distribution. Once again, this is a publication that gives you great information about the history and heritage of the state, and it raises money for this important activity. That’s something, too, for folks to think about advertising opportunities as well. And so if somebody has a business and they want to reach this audience of heritage enthusiasts and travelers, who would they contact? I assume they get a copy of the magazine they should be able to find.
Wendy L
Sure. If they go to authentictexas.com, they can find names and phone numbers for a person to advertise. And also there’s a spec sheet, advertising rates and stuff there. Also, on authentictexas.com, they can go look at past issues. So all of the issues are there.
Chris R
Oh, excellent.
Wendy L
It is a paid subscription that’s less than the the physical magazine subscription, but they can still get a view of what that issue is about, because since they are themed, somebody might be interested in particular ones, maybe not others. We’ve had lots of great themes. We’ve had space and air, and we’re working on spirits and saloons right now. Gosh, what else? Wine. There’s been lots of different themes.
Chris R
A big Texas Rangers thing coming up, I think next year.
Wendy L
Yes, that’s right.
Chris R
Fantastic. There’s one other brand new program that you guys wanted to talk about, and I believe you’re for the first time having some grants being available.
Wendy L
We are. We started this past year. We started the Texas Mountain Trail mini grant program. We will be doing two grants a year, one for spring and one for fall. If you’d like to apply for this grant, you go to texasmountaintrail.com and click on the partners tab and you’ll see the Texas Mountain Trail Mini Grant Program.
Chris R
What projects are you wanting to support?
Wendy L
We are supporting anything that has to do with heritage tourism in the categories of, say, printed materials and publications like walking or driving tours, travel guides, that thing. Exhibit development for maybe small museums or displays, website development, as long as it’s heritage tourism related, interpretive or wayfinding signage, educational programs for the general public, and workshops designed to develop or improve heritage tourism. These aren’t all the things that we consider, but those are the basic guidelines, just as opposed to things we wouldn’t consider that are like brick and mortar projects, operating expenses, that thing. So it’s really just more development type of grant.
Chris R
I’m assuming the projects have to be within the six counties.
Wendy L
Yes, absolutely. They need to be in the Texas Mountain Trail region.
Chris R
All right. Well, yeah. So that’s probably primarily for our local listenership to think about. But if you’re working on a project that has a heritage/history connection, then the Texas Mountain Trail is a resource for you in a lot of different ways. But this is one new one.
Wendy L
Yeah. If you just go to that page on texasmountaintrail.com, you’ll see, scroll to the bottom, there will be two downloads. One is for the guidelines and one is for the applications. And there’s instructions there where to send it. If anybody has any questions, they can contact me. My email is within those documents.
Chris R
Oh, fantastic. Well, thanks so much. Hey, now, so before we go, hey, Stewart, is there anything you want to mention that people want to look for in the new guide or anything you want to leave us with before we sign off?
Stewart R
Well, yeah, I just really encourage people to check it out. Whether you’re visiting or if you live in the region, it’s a great resource for businesses and activities and events that are happening. And there’s always some extra. There’s a feature in there that’s new every year. This year we talk about living in Far West Texas, different, the Trost and Trost hotels, as you mentioned earlier. There’s just great content in there.
Chris R
Yeah, and it’s a beautiful looking magazine as well. You do a great job on this thing.
Stewart R
Thank you. Thank you. I know a lot of people collect them, and I’m really proud to be part of that in promoting the region and something that I look forward to working on every year. And, yeah, just glad to be part of it in supporting Texas Mountain Trail.
Chris R
Excellent. So let’s leave everybody with three websites to think about: that’s bigbendtravelguide.com, texasmountaintrail.com, and mountaintrailadventures.com for that passport program. So that’s about all the time we have. Wendy, thank you so much. Thank you, Stewart, for coming to talk to me.
Thank you for joining us for Heart of the Big Bend every other week. You can get more information about Heart of the Big Bend at visitalpinetx.com/podcast or search for Heart of the Big Bend on Apple podcasts, Spotify, and most other podcast apps. And for all of you guys, listening to us on KALP/KVLF radio in Alpine, we’ll see you in two Fridays.
Outro
You’ve been listening to the heart of the Big Bend. Hope you liked what you heard and that you’ll find the time to experience all that the Big Ben has to offer. See you soon, partner.