DRIVE | DETOUR
OCTOBER 2019 25
D
rive west along Farm-to-Mar-
ket Road 170 from the border
town of Presidio, leaving all
convenience stores and gas
stations behind, and you’ll travel two slim
lanes of humped, serpentine blacktop,
its edges collapsing like desert crust. The
road’s convolutions mirror the Rio Grande
to the left but after just a few miles, the
river’s water diminishes, occasionally dis-
appearing altogether. In its place, dense
mesquite thickets and catclaw thrive
along its dry bed, a thorny border wall of
its own making.
On both sides of the road, the country
unravels in a sparse scrubland accentu-
ated by towering yuccas and ocotillo, the
signature plant of the Chihuahuan Des-
ert—its bony branches like torches tipped
with scarlet flames. Shallow arroyos drain
this tilted landscape and low, swellinghills give way to rising, rocky elevation.
Beyond that, range upon range of broken
mountains cradle the route like the walls
of a bassinet. Continue driving for another
49 miles, passing a couple of cars if any at
all, and the road will abandon you in the
tiny community of Candelaria, where the
pavement abruptly stops.
FM 170 begins approximately 115 miles
southeast of Candelaria in Study Butte,
just beyond the boundary of Big Bend
National Park. A drive along FM 170, or
“River Road,” usually encompasses the
stretch from the park to Presidio, pro-
viding visitors with windshield views of
a storied desert landscape. For most, the
tour ends in Presidio, where a turn north
on US 67 delivers them to Marfa. But con-
tinue on and, while a dead end ultimately
awaits, there are seemingly lost histories
and communities to discover.Some people say this stretch of FM 170
leads to nowhere, but they are wrong. This
has always been somewhere, an austere,
bare-bones region that generations of in-
trepid and resourceful people have called
home. Archeologists believe that humans
first arrived between 8000 and 6500 B.C.
Later, Paleo-Indians occupied the region
for thousands of years. Within the first few
miles out of Presidio, La Junta de los Ríos,
likely the oldest known settlement in the
state, will appear. When Spanish explorer
Cabeza de Vaca passed through there in
1534, he found a thriving community of
villages, established by the Patarabueyas,
who operated a trade network with help
from the nomadic Jumano tribe.
Nothing of this ancient past remains in
apparent evidence except for the land it-
self. Drought has transformed the place
into a creosote-filled desert. Now, theGoing, Going, Gone
The final miles of Big Bend’s FM 170
By E. Dan KlepperA HIGHWAY SIGN
along FM 170 informs
travelers of the road’s
demise.Photo: E. Dan Klepper