In one of his pictures documenting life in far West Texas, photographer Wilfred Dudley (W.D.) Smithers shows a water-delivery boy in Presidio using a can to scoop water from the Rio Grande into a canvas bag draped over a burro’s back. The bag is waterproofed by locally made candelilla wax, and a cow horn serves as its spigot.
In another, a pack train comprising more than 20 mule-drawn wagons navigates the rugged Candelaria Rim southwest of Marfa. Against a backdrop of desert mountains, the teams carefully descend 1,700 feet of switchbacks as they journey to villages and U.S. Cavalry outposts along the river.
“For me, the packer life offered opportunity for countless fascinating observations, some of which I found time to photograph,” Smithers reflected in his “A photographer couldn’t ask for better subjects than the packer and cavalry life, or the natural beauties of the Big Bend.”
