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The Dorgan-Sublett Trail explores a part of the farming history of Big Bend National Park in Texas. It’s located near the end of the Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive.
The Dorgan-Sublett Trail is an easy one-mile round-trip hike with an elevation change of about 56 feet. It should take about a half hour to complete. The trail is mostly rock and sand. A small parking lot at the trailhead can accommodate two cars.
Grand Canyon Farms
The first part of the trail leads to a ruined stone farmhouse owned by James and Melissa Belle Sublett. They’re credited with introducing mechanized farming to the Big Bend area. The Subletts first arrived in Castolon in 1913 and moved into the Alvino House in 1914, running the Castolon Store and a small farm. In 1918, they purchased 2,560 acres of land surrounding today’s trail and called it Grand Canyon Farms.
La Casita
The trail continues through a grass field to a small house, La Casita, also built by the Subletts. It’s the only building remaining from Grand Canyon Farms that’s fully intact.
The Dorgan-Sublett Trail then takes you through desert scrub and up a hill where it forks. There are some spectacular views of the park including the Chisos Mountains and Santa Elena Canyon from the top of the hill.
Sublett House
The right fork leads hikers on a short walk to the remains of the Sublett House, which was built in 1918. It was once a large adobe house with sweeping views of their farmland and the desert landscape. Unfortunately, during the early years of the park, the house was either destroyed or allowed to naturally deteriorate because it was not yet considered historically significant.
Dorgan House
The left fork leads to the ruins of the Dorgan House. In the 1930s, architect Albert Dorgan and his wife, Avis Ann, bought land near the Sublett’s farm. Dorgan was a business partner of Sublett, and together they purchased 640 acres of farmland in the floodplain below their homes.
Their first house was a two-room stone house, but they later built an adobe house that was much larger than most in the area. The large fireplace in the center of the house provided a place for wooden beams holding up the roof to meet, allowing for a much wider and deeper house.
The Dorgans left Big Bend in 1938 due to business and health issues, and in 1941 leased their property to A.F. Robinson. Robinson was hoping to profit off the new Big Bend National Park, which was established on June 12, 1935, and turned the house into the Mexitex Resort. The resort failed and Dorgan later sold his property to the National Park Service in the 1950s.
Walking around the Dorgan House, I was able to see some artifacts left behind. There were pottery shards as well as rusted tin cans. It was also interesting to notice that the house was wired for electricity.
