Mercury Poisoning Killed This Texas Boomtown, But a Chili Cook-Off Keep Its Spirit Alive

Terlingua Ghost Town, Texas

Most ghost towns stay dead. Terlingua didn’t get the memo.

This former mining camp near Big Bend has been abandoned, resurrected, and transformed into something entirely unexpected.

Here’s how a ghost town became an unlikely destination for chili lovers and desert wanderers.

Terlingua Ghost Town

Terlingua sits in the desert near Big Bend National Park in West Texas. This small town once had 2,000 people during its mining days but now has only 58-78 residents according to the 2020 census.

The town exists because of cinnabar, a bright red rock that has mercury inside it. When you heat cinnabar, it makes quicksilver – liquid mercury that was used in bombs and other things.

The name “Terlingua” comes from Spanish words meaning “three tongues.” This refers to three Native American tribes who spoke different languages here.

Native Americans Find The Red Rock

Native tribes found cinnabar long before white settlers came to the area. Apache, Comanche, and Shawnee people had lived in this desert for hundreds of years.

They used the bright red rock to make paint for pictures on rock walls. The tribes knew exactly where to find cinnabar all over the desert.

Mexican and American treasure hunters found these same rocks in the 1880s and knew they could make money from them. But the area was so far from towns, with no water and dangerous conditions, that mining couldn’t start right away.

Jack Dawson Gets The First Mercury

Jack Dawson changed everything in 1888 when he first got mercury from the local red rock. He used a simple way of heating that pulled the valuable liquid metal from crushed stone.

Even after this success, things moved slowly for years. Not many people heard about Dawson’s work until magazines and newspapers started writing about Terlingua in the mid-1890s.

By 1900, four companies worked in the area. The first town was a small Mexican village on Terlingua Creek, three miles up from the Rio Grande River.

Howard Perry Builds A Mining Business

Chicago businessman Howard Perry started the Chisos Mining Company in 1903 using a $50,000 loan. This huge amount of money – worth over $1.5 million today – showed he thought Terlingua could make him rich.

Perry quickly kicked out small miners who had built simple heating ovens on his new land. Though he rarely came to Terlingua, he controlled everything through daily letters to his workers.

Around 1906, Perry built a big house on a hill above his mine. He made it bigger in 1911, adding a second floor with nine bedrooms. This fancy home sat high above the simple houses where his workers lived.

The Scott Furnace Changes Everything

Perry improved his operation in 1908 by putting in a new 20-ton Scott furnace. A mining expert from Colorado told him this was the best technology you could buy.

Perry decided to do this after visiting Spain’s biggest mercury mine. He wanted his operation to be just as good and put in an even bigger furnace in 1915.

These big furnaces replaced the old way of heating crushed rock in small pots. The new machines could work on tons of material all day long, making much more mercury and bigger profits.

World War I Creates A Boom

In 1914, miners found one of the richest spots of red rock in all of Terlingua. This timing was perfect because World War I created huge demand for mercury in bombs and military stuff.

The boom was huge. In September 1916 alone, two train cars full of mercury left Alpine, Texas worth over $50,000 – equal to more than $1.3 million today.

By 1917, the county made 10,791 bottles of mercury worth over $1 million. By the early 1920s, the Chisos mine became America’s biggest mercury maker, putting Terlingua on the map.

Perry Controls The Whole Town

The Chisos Mining Company owned everything in Terlingua. Perry built a complete town with a big store, ice-making building, jail, good water, and phone service that didn’t always work.

As business grew, he added fun stuff: a movie theater, a candy shop, and a gas station when cars became popular. The town kept white people and Mexican workers apart, with whites living on one side and Mexicans on the other.

This separation showed who had power in this far-away desert town.

Mercury Hurts The Workers

Workers handling the red rock breathed dangerous mercury smoke every day. The toxic fumes from the ovens caused terrible health problems that miners couldn’t avoid.

One furnace worker described what happened: “Every tooth in my head became loose, and I could no longer eat solid food. I could only eat soup, crackers, coffee and mouthwash.”

Falls in mine holes and accidents with equipment killed and hurt many workers. By 1945, miners had dug 23 miles of tunnels under the desert, following the red rock deep underground while many people got hurt or died.

The Town Dies Fast

Problems started in the 1930s when the easy-to-reach red rock ran out. The number of workers dropped from 150 in 1934 to just 20 by 1938 as money ran out.

Howard Perry went broke in 1942 during World War II. The weird thing was, mercury prices hit their highest point ever at $193 per bottle that same year, making the closure really annoying.

Perry died in 1944 never getting his money back. Another company tried to keep going for a while, but by 1945, families left their homes and Terlingua became a real ghost town.

A Chili Contest Brings New Fame

Race car maker Carroll Shelby owned 200,000 acres around Terlingua by 1962, using it as his personal hangout spot. In 1967, he worked with newspaper writer Frank X. Tolbert to put on a publicity stunt that would change the town forever.

On October 21, 1967, they held the first Terlingua Chili Cookoff with a New York writer competing against a Texas chili expert. The judge tasted both bowls but his tongue got so burned he couldn’t pick a winner.

They called it a tie, but this funny event started a yearly tradition that continues today as two separate contests every November, bringing thousands of people to the forgotten ghost town.

Artists And Free Spirits Move In

During the 1960s and 1970s, new people found Terlingua appealing. Artists, musicians, and free spirits liked the desert’s quiet isolation and wild beauty, bringing life back to empty buildings.

The Starlight Theatre shows this change perfectly. Built as a movie theater for miners in 1931, it had no roof for years after the metal covering was sold for scrap. Locals used the open space for parties and music.

In 1991, people fixed up the Starlight with a new roof, reopening it as a restaurant, bar, and music place. By 2000, Terlingua had grown to 267 people living there year-round.

Visiting Terlingua Ghost Town

Terlingua Ghost Town sits in southwestern Brewster County, West Texas, just outside Big Bend National Park.

The Terlingua Cemetery, established in 1902, offers a haunting glimpse into the past. It contains over 500 graves, many covered with rocks in the traditional desert style.

Handmade markers reveal the area’s mixed cultural history and hosts Day of the Dead celebrations each November 2nd.

Stop by the Terlingua Trading Company housed in the original Chisos Mine company store from 1908. This largest adobe building in Texas now sells souvenirs, artwork, and supplies to visitors.

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