Double Mills

Duane's take

Here's how the marker at Double Mills tells it, and I'm passing it straight along to you. Way out in Brewster County, there's a spot that has been drawing creatures, and people, to it for about as long as anyone can reckon. We know this because of the artifacts found there, physical evidence left behind from prehistoric time.

Long before any road was named or any well was dug, something about that ground said: stop here, rest here, drink here. Indians knew it. Spaniards knew it, moving along their roads up from northern Mexico.

That natural watering place was the whole reason the spot mattered at all. Then Maravillas Creek did what water does in West Texas; it changed. As the creek developed from a draw into a proper water channel, that old water hole simply vanished.

Gone. The thing that made the place matter had disappeared right out from under it. Now, you might think that'd be the end of the story.

But around 1900, a rancher by the name of George Miller wasn't about to let the land keep its secrets. He dug two wells and put up twin windmills, side by side, turning slow against the Brewster County sky. And after that, folks started calling the place Double Mills.

The name stuck because the need stuck. Ranchers driving cattle and horses out of Mexico or down from the Chisos Mountains toward the railroad at Marathon stopped there. Wagon trains hauling ore rolled through and rested there.

U.S. troops on border duty watered their horses there. That spot had been a gathering place since before memory, and George Miller's two windmills just made sure it stayed one.

What the marker says

A natural watering place in prehistoric time, as evidenced by artifacts found here. Used later by Indians and Spaniards on roads from northern Mexico. As Maravillas Creek developed from a draw into water channel, old water hole vanished. About 1900 a rancher, George Miller, dug two wells and put up twin windmills. After that site was called Double Mills. Became campsite for ranchers driving cattle and horses from Mexico or the Chisos Mountains to the railroad at Marathon. Also for wagon trains of ore; and for U.S. troops on border duty. (1967)