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Railroad Family Exploring

Shared by visitor Mildred Baker Beaman on April 26, 2014

It was probably very early in the public history of McDonald Observatory when the Jim Baker family made their first visit. With 3 preschoolers (Warren, Mildred, and Roger), it must have been a Sunday near 75 years ago, probably when Jim was operating a Burro half-circle crane for the redecking of Southern Pacific Railroad's Pecos High Bridge.

Building the Road to the Observatory and Hauling the Tube and Mirror

Shared by visitor Caroline Neeley Mueller on April 23, 2014

In order for the observatory to be built a road had to be constructed up the mountain, which was a distance of 17 miles from Ft. Davis., C.E. Armstrong and Sons (my Great Grandfather and his company) were part of the building of the road.

The 1937 Trip to West Texas

Shared by visitor Richard Robertson on April 21, 2014

Shortly after my 10th birthday, our family left Dallas in our 1935 Plymouth for a trip to West Texas. Memorable stops along the way were eating breakfast in the Nimitz Hotel in Fredericksburg, and spending the night in the new Lone Starr Lodges in Kerrville. We headed for Fort Davis, where we spent the night at the Prude Ranch and then drove up Mt. Locke to see the new McDonald Observatory on September 7th.

Hauling the lens up the Mountain

Shared by visitor Bill Jones on March 30, 2014

My father Henry Noah Jones lived in the Ft. Davis , Texas area when my sister Mary Lou Jones was born there, My mom told me dad helped haul a huge lens up the mountain for a new obsevatory being built there at the time.