Bead-Presidio Brown Wood TB

I maintain records on my trackables. For a US-based trackable, this one is unusual for its longevity and movement. In the six-year period, 2010-19, the owner released a total of 3,793 trackables in the United States (96%) and Europe (4%). This trackable is one of the 5% of the total that circulated for at least 5 years and had been moved at least 25 times. That is a target rate of at least five drops per year for five years, or a drop every 73 days. The average drop rate of my trackables in the US is 124 days, in Europe it is 71 days. As of 27-Feb-24 this trackable had survived for 10.7 years and had been moved by 41 cachers, for an average drop every 95 days, or 3.8 drops per year. Please keep it moving, then drop it in a safe place!

No permission is needed to leave the U.S. While in the U.S., please drop it at an event, in a Premium Member only OR a rural cache near a busy trail or road. Do not place it in an urban, non-premium cache. Transport the bug in the original plastic bag for as long as the bag lasts; the bag keeps the trackable clean and dry, protects the number and prevents tangling with other items. Otherwise, take the trackable anywhere you wish.

Medium Wood Focal.  While the TB owner lives on the Southern High Plains in the Panhandle of northwest Texas, he has spent considerable time in what many Texans would call Far West Texas.  It remains a favorite part of the state.  Much of it is the Chihuahuan Desert.  In the desert are remotes outposts of civilization and even mountains that rise high enough to harbor junipers and pines.  This travel bug commemorates a favorite place in the region, partly because the history and partly because of memories.

Presidio is a city in Presidio County. It stands on the Rio Grande (Río Bravo del Norte), on the opposite side of the US-Mexico border from Ojinaga, Chihuahua. The population was 4,426 as of the 2010 US census.
 
The area around present-day Presidio is thought to be the oldest continuously cultivated area in the United States. The junction of the Conchos and Rio Grande rivers at Presidio was settled thousands of years ago by hunting and gathering Indians.  By 1200 AD, the local Indians had adopted agriculture and lived in small, closely knit settlements, which the Spaniards later called pueblos.  The first European to visit the area was Cabeza de Vaca in 1553 when it became a stop on the shipwrecked sailor's famous tour.
 
In 1830 the name of the area around Presidio was changed from La Junta de los Ríos (Junction of the Rivers) to Presidio del Norte, well after the establishment of a penal colony and military garrison in 1760. Anglo settlers arrived after the Mexican War.  Among them was John Spencer, who operated a horse ranch on the United States side of the Rio Grande near Presidio. Ben Leaton and Milton Faver, former scalp hunters for the Mexican government, built private forts in the area.  In 1849 a Comanche raid almost destroyed Presidio, and in 1850 Indians drove off most of the cattle in town.  A post office was established at Presidio in 1868, and the first public school was opened in 1887.
 
In 1897, President William McKinley appointed George B. Jackson, an African American former buffalo soldier as customs collector at Presidio, a position that he held until his death in 1900.  Jackson, a businessman from San Angelo, was considered the "wealthiest colored man in Texas" in the second half of the 19th century.   During the Mexican Revolution (1910), General Pancho Villa often used Ojinaga as his headquarters for operations and visited Presidio on numerous occasions. 
 
As of 2007, Presidio's local economy is based largely upon employment at Presidio Independent School District, United States Customs and Border Protection, and local retail businesses.  Formerly, Presidio was home to several truck-farming operations, focused mainly on onions and cantaloupes. Those operations unfortunately ceased in the late 1990s.  In the 1960s, throughout west Texas there were trailers and roadside stands getting premium prices for Pecos cantaloupes, but on the outskirts of Pecos there were sellers from Presidio getting even better prices.  Such was the quality of Presidio canteloupes.