On April 9, 2014, Rhonda Holley accompanied me on a calaboose recording trip to West Texas.  We stayed at the Super 8 about eight miles east of Ozona.  Good place and reasonably priced.  Two stories and outside entry.  Nice atrium with pool and jacuzzi (lots of plants) in the center and each room has a sliding glass door to access the area.  Restaurant not special and expensive.  Also, RV camping next door.

Great restaurant in Ozona called Pepes.  It has Mexican and American and the food is very good.  Best Migas we have ever had.  Coffee not bad either.  Atmosphere really special, and quite a shock for a small West Texas town.  Adornments consist of Day of the Dead statues and lots of Rock and Roll pictures and memorabilia including a jacket signed by the Rolling Stones when they passed through.  Owner is a really good artist and has a good painting of Jimmy Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughn.

We documented calabooses in Best, Goldsmith, Monahans, and Stiles.  I added the photos and am working on the text and getting site numbers.  We found one in Fort Stockton that we believe was a calaboose but the locals we talked to say it has always been used for storage.  That is true as long as they remember but it would be unusual in our opinion for a very small storage room to have two doors.  It is on the courthouse square, made of rock, and probably was the jail until the two-story county jail was built.

The calaboose in Best is special because it is the only building left in this ghost town next to the railroad tracks.  I made several calls to Big Lake before this trip and nobody knew anything about it.  I found out about it when I saw a picture on the Internet.  It is on the south side of the tracks in a field of thorns (literally).  Glad we got there because it will not last much longer because the mixture of cement and aggregate was not sufficient and little if any rebar was used.

The calaboose in Monahans is on the grounds of the Million Barrel Museum just outside of town.  This is an interesting place with a very nice vintage caboose and a huge pit that once reportedly held one million barrels of crude oil.  It was moved here from another part of town for preservation.

The calaboose in Big Lake was moved here from Stiles, now a ghost town with only the ruins of the 1911 rock courthouse and a couple of metal buildings left.  The courthouse is very impressive and worth a visit.

Next to it is the vault with a very impressive arched ceiling.

In Pecos, we expected to record a calaboose that was reportedly moved there from Langtry, home of judge Roy Bean.  Got there and found out that it is a replica of what a calaboose may have looked like and had nothing to do with the town of Langtry.

There is a very good museum in an old hotel and every room is filled with exhibits.  Takes quite a bit of time to see the entire place.  Also on the grounds is a to scale replica of the Judge Roy Bean saloon and another vintage caboose.

We also documented several interesting buildings including one very unusual one that looks just like a calaboose but it is not very tall and partially underground.  A colleague told me that he thinks it is a storm shelter.

Overall, we drove 1300 miles in four days and had quite an adventure.  Great restaurant in the tiny town of Richland Springs (we had BLT sandwiches).  Found out that there had been calabooses in the past at Iraan, Richland Springs, and Sheffield.  These will be added to the website under “Vanished.”