Abbye.

Well, the Balmorhea State Park swimming pool seems a likely candidate.

Maybe the "John Ben Jackrabbit" statue at the ECISD HQ in Odessa?

Okay, okay... seriously now, I'd like to nominate Larry McMurtry's bookshop, "Booked Up" in Archer City. Four buildings, an unbrowsable number of books, and sometimes even the author himself.

link to Booked Up website.

Lubbock Lake Landmark, covered here: http://www.texasoutside.com/lubbock/LubbockLakeLandmark.htm

Palo Duro Canyon, covered here: http://www.palodurocanyon.com/

You really cant have a legitimate Seven Wonders of West Texas without including Santa Elena Canyon, the Chisos and the Guadalupes. And if you extend the boundary to include the Panhandle, you must also include Palo Duro and of course Cadillac Ranch.

And lest we forget we must include the Fire Ant Gazette World Headquarters, which will no doubt someday be museumized in the same way the GWB Childhood Home has been.

I think we'll make Lubbock sort of the north boundary of what we'll call West Texas for this exercise.

So, LLL in; Palo Duro out.

Also, at some point we'll need to decide if this is "7 Wonders" or "7 Natural Wonders" or a combination of both. For now, we'll take all nominations and sort it out later.

My choice for a West Texas wonder would be the Marfa Lights. I've seen them and wonder what they are. You and I looked for them and wondered where they were. But they've been a wonder for many folks and for many years.

I agree that the Marfa Lights are worthy of consideration, but at some point we'll have to classify them as "natural" or "man-made," and I don't know how to do that!

Well, I've been "wondering" about the draw of the Monahans Sandhills for years. Does that count?

Also, on the man-made side of things, the replica of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in Odessa is a surprising find for the area.

Just re-read the post and noticed that the Rio Grande is only mentioned as a boundary--not as an official nomination. Which, of course, it has to be...

I second the rio grande.

Sherry, the Globe Theater is an excellent nomination, as are the Sandhills.

Not so sure about the Rio Grande, though. After all, it does run from Colorado to the Gulf of Mexico. It's hardly exclusive to west Texas.

But nobody MAKES the Rio Grande like Texas MAKES it. The river gives West Texas its geographical uniqueness. It's WHY we have a big bend. Not to mention it makes us a country, AS it runs through West Texas. It's just a river in any other state. In Texas, it's a wonder. it definitely belongs.

OK, Oh-KAY! Sheesh. I didn't realize this was a matter of TexNational Urgency. Anyway, I did include it in the list; we'll let the voters decide.

It might also be a candidate for the honorary Eighth Wonder (like the Pyramids are with the new 7 WotW)...you know, in a class by itself. ;-)

Zack and Abbye both are wondrous wonders of West Texas!

Surprisingly, there seems to be enough nominations to have both a "7 Wonders" (man-made) -and- "7 Natural Wonders" of West Texas.

How about Capote Falls? It's the highest waterfall in Texas at 175 feet.
I haven't been there (yet), as it's on private land in Presidio County.

Rob, I'm pretty sure that's the direction we're headed.

What i'd like to know is how can you include Archer City and leave out Palo Duro Canyon? That's kinda bugging me.

Well, if you're going to have two categories then I'm resubmitting my nomination of Abbye (I'll let you decide which category).

So there.

Jimmy, you're absolutely right.

Archer City is out.

Sorry, Jim. It's just too far north...bordering on Yankeeland, actually.

Mike, Capote Falls is an excellent nomination! The deck is probably stacked against it given its relative obscurity, but thanks for putting it forth.

Jim...Eric didn't really mean that. Archer City is actually bordering on Oklahoma, which is the 250-mile strip of land we used to sufficiently seperate us from Yankeeland.

So if Archer City, Abilene, Amarillo, Stamford, and Turkey aren't in west Texas, where are they? Baja Oklahoma?

Abilene's borderline; it's just a bit east of San Angelo.

All the others are North Texas, for purposes of this exercise. You don't like it, take it up with the jury.

Oh, wait. You just did. ;-)

[You're just peeved because I implied you're in Yankeeland.]

Caverns of Sonora

Wink Sink / Kermit Crater

Southern Pacific Railroad Bridge over the Pecos

Good! I was going to nominate the Caverns and the bridge if no one else did. (Is that bridge over the Pecos or the Devil's River? The online information referred to the Pecos River Canyon.)

For man-made wonders of West Texas, I would like to nominate the Chinati Foundation's main complex, on the old airbase grounds south of Marfa ..... the remains of the once-spring-fed pools and canals of Rooney Park, in Fort Stockton ..... the Sibley Mansion of Alpine ..... Kokernot Field, also of Alpine ..... that mansion with the minarets, on the hillside east of Alpine (does it/did it belong to the Sibleys?) ..... and the courthouses for Presidio, Jeff Davis, Crockett and Pecos counties .....

OOOOPPPSSS!!! ..... in my last post, I mentioned Alpine's Sibley (?) Mansion twice ..... can I get a 'do-over' and replace one of those mentions with a nomination for the million-barrel oil tank in Monahans?

There's also a million barrel tank at McCamey.

Mike, are they doing anything with the tank at McCamey? My recollection about the one in Monahans is that it is (or was) a museum.

Gotta nominate the Prada store someone set up along U.S. 90 in Valentine (even if it does say "Prada-Marfa"), if only for the incongruity of driving past the thing for the first time and thinking "What the....?"

John, is that thing still there? I thought it had been vandalized and emptied out.

The 'Prada Store' was an extension of Chinati ..... but I guess it still counts as a stand-alone - literally - nominee.

Summer Mummers. I've never seen anything like it anywhere else in the country. Midland wouldn't be Midland without it.

Oh! Oh! I thought of another one...for the 'natural' category.

Pecos cantaloupes! I've been known to stick a couple in the overhead bins of airplanes to bring back to Michigan. One time an ol' geezer at the security checkpoint in the Midland airport tried to confiscate them as 'contraband,' but I gave him the what-for.

Ah, excellent suggestions, both!

...an ol' geezer at the security checkpoint in the Midland airport tried to confiscate them as 'contraband,'...

Yeah, right. He was going to have 'em for breakfast the next morning!

The suggestions come from newcomers to the region...if they didn't mention the fabulous Odessa Meteor Crater.

Archer City is out.

**Sigh**

All of Texas is west to me.

Wallace, that's another obvious suggestion that we just missed. Thanks.

Jim, perhaps you just need to spend more time down here and all of these little nuances will become more meaningful. ;-)

Driving through on the interstate, what about the miles and miles of wind turbines? Or this year the yucca blooms? That's what we saw.

perhaps you just need to spend more time down here

I plan on it, someday.

Allie, the observation about the wind farms is a good one. However, I picked one that's actually more off the beaten path than those you saw along I-20. There's a new development going in near Sterling City and some of the turbines are ver close to the highway, so you can really get a sense of just how huge those things are.

The yucca blooms aren't always around in such profusion. We got rainfall at just the right time this year.

I thought Fort Worth was supposed to be where the west begins.

That's what the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce would have you believe. ;-)

I think Indian Lodge deserves a mention.

You got it! Good call...

After Friday, I thought you might put Windwalker Farms on the map...pretty amazing, all the corporate sponsorship out there, huh?

Janie, if they'll grade a few of those dirt roads leading out there, I might consider it. Otherwise, I just need to know who to send the front-end alignment bill to. ;-)

It was a pretty cool event, though. We had fun, but we were worn out by the end of the day.

Fort Worth may be Where the West Begins, but Abilene is the Key City, ie. the Key to the West. Of course, St. Louis is the Gateway to the West.

Anyway, I vote for the Big Cross in Ballinger.

http://www.ballingertx.org/

The Blue Origin Spaceport in Van Horn

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/ap_bezos_spaceport_050315.html

The Cross is a good one – Ballinger isn't exactly a "destination" – but can one actually visit the spaceport? We'll add it to the list anyway.

Inspired by this weekend's MS150 Bike Tour, I'm going to have to nominate the portion the great West Texas Caprock between Gail and Post as you travel down FM 669. If you've never taken this route, there are a lot of surprising offerings for the eye--especially from a bicycle saddle--especially for West Texas--especially following a year of record rainfall.

I'll bet the countryside was beautiful this year. Glad you guys were able to enjoy the scenery from your bikes!

Just put Big Bend Nat'l Park in there now and reduce your search to six.

And the Cadillac Ranch has Easter Island and Stonehenge beat, for sure.

Bret, I wouldn't argue at all with Big Bend being a (or THE) must-see location in West Texas, but that makes for a boring poll.

Cadillac Ranch is in western Texas, but not West Texas. ;-)