By Bartee Haile

A bill calling for the creation of Texas Canyons State Park was introduced in the Lone Star legislature on March 2, 1933, but national status for Big Bend would be a long time coming. 

The first shot in the battle for Big Bend was fired a half century earlier by an El Paso editor, who believed the “majestic scenery” of the rugged wonderland would “eclipse anything that has heretofore been produced within the limits of North America.” Even though he urged i...