January-February 2007 Issue

Fort Clark Springs, only half an hour from Del Rio on U.S. Highway 90 East, offers a glimpses of authentic western history through carefully preserved architecture, museum exhibits and a walking tour. In addition, with an annual family membership, visitors may enjoy the Springs’ monster swimming pool, and many other leisure time activities. There’s no entry fee, and personal identification is all that’s needed at the entrance.

Indianhead Ranch owner, guide and host Laurent Delagrange believes exotic game hunting gets a bad rap, largely from people who know little or nothing about his profession. He’s willing to de-mystify the growing business to anyone who will listen, but his greater passions are nourishing habitat for herds of game animals on his 10,000-acre ranch, and providing quality sport hunting for several hundred guests each year.

The “sporting” nature of managed white-tailed deer hunting can be debated ad nauseum, but one ineluctable fact remains. Landowners who invest wisely are making a lot of money, usually off of pampered deer and big spenders from Texas, New Mexico and Louisiana. Michael McGee’s Dead Man’s Pass Ranch, about 45 minutes north of Del Rio, is one of those places so thriving.

Soon beer will flow in record-setting abundance from the world’s largest brewery, a 15-minute drive south of Piedras Negras, Coah., Mexico, and barely twenty miles from Eagle Pass. Business and political leaders in both cities expect huge rewards in economic development of the region.

With a budget surplus and the specter of regime change in House leadership, Texas legislators return for the 2007 session primed to make changes. Southwest Texas legislators see health and human services and education-related issues as the priorities.

Banks in the region passed a monumental milestone in 2006 when total deposits exceeded $1 billion in this region. Area bankers say the growth of banking deposits in southwest Texas is a result of various factors, including: the rapid increase in the value of real estate (especially ranch land), an oil and gas boom in the northern counties, and most of all, deposits from Mexican nationals seeking a safe harbor for their cash during a turbulent election year in Mexico.