University of Texas at Austin
College of Liberal ArtsCredits & Sources
The Wax Camps along the Rio Grande exhibits are based on
the 1981 Texas Historical Commission report written by the late Curtis
Tunnell. (Tunnell's life and career are traced in the section, Tunnell's
Journey). His artistry as a writer and photographer is evident throughout
these exhibits.
The Wax Camps exhibits were developed and edited by TBH Co-Editor
Susan Dial with webmaster Meg Kemp and were made possible with support through
the Curtis D. Tunnell Memorial Fund grant, Friends of the Texas Historical
Commission. JoAnn Pospisil, Pat Mercado-Allinger, Andrew Cloud, and
Raymond Skiles served as exhibit reviewers.
Historian JoAnn Pospisil wrote the section entitled, "The Industry Today" and also provided many of the photos used in these exhibits. She holds a Masters degree in History from the University of Houston and is a "life student" of the Big Bend area. She has written a variety of articles on the economy and folk life of the region, including her study of the little-known involvement of women in wax making. With THC steward Enrique Madrid and his wife Ruby serving as interpreters, Pospisil visits wax camps and interviews wax makers in northern Mexico, including several candelilleras, or female wax workers. She also has compiled a bibliography of Hispanic-related materials in the Archives of the Big Bend at Sul Ross State University. She is a Certified Archivist currently working at the Baylor College of Medicine Chancellor's Office and Archives in the Texas Medical Center, Houston, but frequently makes the lengthy drive to Alpine to enjoy, study, and then write about the Big Bend area.
Raymond Skiles provided many exceptional photos for these exhibits, capturing not only the breathtaking scenery of the Chihuahuan desert but the character of the wax workers who make their living from its resources. A native of Langtry, Texas, Skiles grew up on the Rio Grande and today serves as Wildlife Biologist for Big Bend National Park, National Park Service. Skiles has made numerous trips into northern Mexico to meet with the wax makers and photograph their techniques.
Links
http://www.thc.state.tx.us/
Website of the Texas Historical Commission.
http://www.nps.gov/bibe/
Big Bend National Park website with sections on the area's history, culture,
and environment plus practical information on getting to the park, weather,
and events.
Print Sources
Alcocer, G., and J.M. Sanders
1910 Euphorbia Cerifera, Alcocer. Anales del Instituto Medico
Nacional, Mexico 2:155-162.
Blair, W. Frank
1950 The Biotic Provinces of Texas. The Texas Journal of Science 2
(1):93-117.
Buckelew, F.M., and S.E. Banta
1911 Buckelew the Indian captive, or the Life Story of F.M. Buckelew
while a Captive among the Lipan Indians in the Western Wilds of Frontier
Texas. Printed by Mason Herald, Mason, Texas.
Casey, Clifford B.
1972 Mirages, Mysteries, and Reality: Brewster County, Texas, the Big
Bend of the Rio Grande. Sponsored by the Brewster County Historical
Survey Committee. Pioneer Book Publishers, Seagraves, Texas.
Correll, D.S., and M.C. Johnston
1970 Manual of the Vascular Plants of Texas. Texas Research Foundation,
Renner, Texas.
Daugherty, P.M., H.H. Sineath, and T.A. Wastler
1953 Industrial Raw Materials of Plant Origin, Vol. 3: A Survey
of Candelilla Wax. Engineering Experiment Station Bulletin 15(12). Georgia
Institute of Technology, Atlanta.
Dickinson, Thomas
1919 Production of Candelilla Wax in Monterey, Mexico. American Journal
of Pharmacy, December: 808-809.
Douglas, William O.
1967 Farewell to Texas: A Vanishing Wilderness. McGraw-Hill, New
York.
Emory, William H.
1857 Report on the United States and Mexican Boundary Survey, Made
under the Direction of the Secretary of the Interior. U.S. House of
Representatives, 34th Congress., 1st Session. Exec. Doc. 135. Washington,
D.C.
Gerald, Rex E.
1968 Spanish Presidios of the Llate Eighteenth Century in Northern
New Spain. Museum of New Mexico Research Records 7. Santa Fe.
Goddard, Ruth Ogden
1969 Ralph Ogden. Pemberton Press, Jenkins Publishing Co., Austin.
Graham, Joe S.
1975 Tradition and the Candelilla Wax Industry. In Some Still Do: Essays
on Texas Customs, edited by F.E. Abernethy, pp. 39-54. Texas Folklore
Society Publication 39. Encino Press, Austin.
Greer, John W.
1965 A Typology of Midden Circles and Mescal Pits. Southwestern Lore
31 (3):41-55.
Hare, R.F., and A.P. Bjerregaard
1910 Examination of Candelilla Wax. Journal of Industrial and Engineering
Chemistry 2 (5):203-205.
Hitchcock, Totsy N.
1960 Some Big Bend Personalities, 1895-1925. Masters thesis, Sul Ross
State College, Alpine, Tx.
Hodge, W.H., and H.H. Sineath
1956 The Mexican Candelilla Plant and Its Wax. Economic Botany 10
(2):134-154.
Holden, William C.
1975 Alton Hutson: Reminiscences of a South Plains Youth. Trinity
University Press, San Antonio.
Langford, J.W., with Fred Gipson
1973 Big Bend: A Homesteader's Story. 2nd ed. University of Texas
Press, Austin.
Literary Digest
1921 Wax Worth Millions from Weeds. Literary Digest, No. 69 (June):21.
Madison, Virginia
1968 The Big Bend Country of Texas. Rev. ed. October House, New
York.
Mallouf, Robert J., and Curtis Tunnell
1977 An Archeological Reconnaissance in the Lower Canyons of the Rio
Grande. Office of the State Archeologist Survey Report 22. Texas Historical
Commission, Austin.
Maxwell, Ross A.
1968 The Big Bend of the Rio Grande: A Guide to the Rocks, Landscape,
Geologic History, and Settlers of the Area of Big Bend National Park.
Bureau of Economic Geology Guidebook 7. The University of Texas at Austin.
Miller, Tom
1979 The Mexican-American Border: A Third Nation. Geo 1:30-36.
National Academy of Sciences
1975 Underexploited Tropical Plants with Promising Economic Value.
Report prepared by an ad hoc advisory panel of the Board on Science and
Technology for International Development, Commission on International
Relations, National Research Council, for the Agency for International
Development. National Academy of Sciences, Washington, D.C.
Olsson-Seffer, P.
1909 Vegetable Waxes from Mexico. Bulletin of the Imperial Institute,
South Kensington 7 (4):410-411.
Pospisil, JoAnn
1994 Chihuahuan Desert Candelilla: Folk Gathering of a Regional Resource.
Journal of Big Bend Studies. Sul Ross State University, Alpine,
Texas.
1996 Women and Wax: Female Participation in the Candelilla Wax Industry. Journal of Big Bend Studies. Sul Ross State University, Alpine, Texas.
1997 Candelilla Wax's Importance in the Big Bend Region. West Texas Historical Association Yearbook, Vol. 73:70. Abilene: Hardin-Simmons University.
Raht, Carlysle Graham
1963 The Romance of Davis Mountains and Big Bend Country: A History.
Edition Texana. Rahtbooks Company, Odessa, Tx.
Smithers, W.D.
1963 Bandit Raids in the Big Bend country. Sul Ross State College Bulletin
43 (3):74-105. (Also West Texas Historical and Scientific Publication
19.)
1976 Chronicles of the Big Bend: A Photographic Memoir of Life on the Border. Madrona Press, Austin.
Texas Legislature
1907 S.B. No. 118: Lands Providing for the Sale of Guayule on Public Free
School Lands. In General Laws of the State of Texa Passed at the Regular
Session of the Thirtieth Legislature, pp. 251-252. Von-Boeckmann-Jones,
Austin.
Tunnell, Curtis
1981 Wax, Men, and Money: A Historical and Archeological Study of Candelilla
Wax Camps along the Rio Grande Border of Texas. Office of the State
Archeologist Report 32, Texas Historical Commission, Austin.
Tunnell, Curtis, and Robert Mallouf
1975 Cultural Resources in the Canyons of the Rio Grande. Office
of the State Archeologist Special Report 17. Texas Historical Commission,
Austin.
Tyler, Ronnie C.
1975 The Big Bend: A History of the Last Texas Frontier. National
Park Service, U.S. Dept. of the Interior, Washington, D.C.
U. S. Imports of Merchandise for Consumption, Vegetable
Wax, Commodity
Number 1521100020 (graphed volume and price statistics), 2000
Vines, Robert A.
1960 Trees, Shrubs, and Woody Vines of the Southwest. University
of Texas Press, Austin.
Webb, Walter Prescott
1947 The Big Bend of Texas. Panhandle-Plains Historic Review 10:7-20.
Weber, David
1982 The Mexican Frontier, 1821-1846: The American Southwest Under
Mexico. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.
Whitaker, John R.
1941 Wax from the Wilderness. Nature Magazine, November 1941, pp.
497-500.
Wood, Captain D.C.
1963 The Glenn Springs Raid. Sul Ross State College Bulletin 43
(3):64-72. (Also West Texas Historical and Scientific Society Publication
19.)
Zuccarini, Dr. Jos. Gerh.
1832 Description of Euphorbia antisiphylitica Zuccar. In Adhandlungen
der Mathematisch-Physikalischen Classe der Koeniglish Bayerischen Akademie
der Wissenschaften, Vol. 1, fasc. 1, pp. 292-293. Munich.
Interviews and Personal Communications
Adams, David
1977 Interviewed in Stillwell Crossing, Tx., by Curtis Tunnell.
1980 Interviewed in Marathon, Tx., by Curtis Tunnell.
Areniva, Agapito
1976 Interviewed in Presidio, Tx., by Curtis Tunnell.
Armendariz, Luis
1976 Interviewed in Presidio, Tx., by Curtis Tunnell.
Bryant, Vaughn
1976 Personal communication. (Letter of July 1976 provided to Curtis Tunnell.)
Burleson, Bob
1976 Interviewed in Austin, Tx., by Curtis Tunnell.
Casner, J.E.
1976 Interviewed in Alpine, Tx., by Curtis Tunnell.
Earwood, Clem
1977 Interviewed in Alpine, TX., by Mavis Bryant.
Harrison, J.
1977 Interviewed in Sanderson, Tx., by Mavis Bryant.
Ornelas, Tom
1976 Interviewed in Presidio, Tx., by Curtis Tunnell.
Riojas, Ramón
1980 Interviewed at Adams Ranch, Brewster County, Tx., by Curtis Tunnell.
Stillwell, Hallie
1976 Interviewed in Alpine, Tx., by Mavis Bryant.
Thomas, D.D.
1977 Interviewed in Alpine, TX., by Mavis Bryant.
Walker, Mrs.
1975 Interviewed in Candelária, Tx., by Curtis Tunnell.