Bead-Van Horn Gold Black White Green Glass TB

Please drop this item in rural OR Premium Member Only caches.  Do not place it in an urban cache or abandon it at a caching event.  Transport the bug in the original plastic bag for as long as the bag lasts; the bag keeps the trackable clean and prevents tangling with other items.  Otherwise, take the travel bug anywhere you wish.  No permission is needed to leave the U.S.

Photos in the travel bug logs are appreciated.  I will be re-post them here, where they can be seen by other cachers.

Van Horn was named after a Union Officer, while Culberson County was named after a Confederate.  The history of Van Horn begins with the discovery of Van Horn Wells, south of town near the present ghost town of Lobo.  The credit of discovery goes to Jefferson Van Horne (with an "e"), an Army Major who later commanded Ft. Bliss.  The town of Van Horn Wells was a stage stop on the San Diego - San Antonio Mail Route.  During the Civil War, the wells were captured by Confederates.  The Union Officer in charge was James Judson Van Horn, who was no relation at all to Major Jefferson Van Horne, other than being brothers-in-arms.  

In 1881 when the railroad (the Texas and Pacific) came through, the town of Van Horn grew around the tracks and Van Horn Wells was left where it was, providing water and later irrigating cotton fields and vegetable crops.  The railroad put in wells of their own and 1886 saw the post office established as well as the town's first store.  By 1890 the population was almost 500.

The first person to die in Van Horn was an infant child of the Beach family, in 1881, whereupon the father Beach gave a plat of land west of town for use as a cemetery.   According to local legend, the first adult to die was rancher AS Goynes, and his passing was not without irony.  In tribute to Van Horn's climate, Goynes supposedly suggested the motto, "This Town Is So Healthy We Had to Shoot a Man to Start a Cemetery," which later hung in the lobby of the Clark Hotel.   Shortly thereafter Goynes was shot dead by his brother-in-law in a feud over a watering hole, thereby becoming the first man buried in the Van Horn cemetery.

The first school in Van Horn was established in 1887, when Mrs. C. M. Cox taught seven pupils in her home.  By 1890 an estimated 450 people were living in the area, and the town had twelve businesses, including a general store, a hotel, a real estate office, a blacksmith, and a lawyer.  Despite such signs of growth and sophistication, however, Van Horn could still be a wild place.  The new century was ushered in by the murder of the postmaster in 1900 by "Red" Sealy.   In 1914 John Marine was appointed the second sheriff of Culberson County, serving out the unexpired term of his predecessor, JH Feeley, who had been killed in a gunfight.    

Tourism became an important industry in the 1930s with the opening of nearby Carlsbad Caverns and later the opening of Guadalupe Mountains National Park.  The completion of Interstate 10 through the edge town has mightily boosted the economy.  Over 11,000 people pass through Van Horn daily.