Go West: Marathon

Marathon is in the middle of far west Texas and part of the Trans-Pecos area of the great state. In the high Chihuahuan desert, surrounded by green flecked foothills and plateaus of the Chisos and surrounding mountain ranges, Marathon maintains a sparsely populated old oil city of about 450 people. Those  living there now are mostly ranchers, and some others help to offer Marathon as a destination for tourism to Big Bend Sate Park and nearby Alpine and Marfa. The Gage hotel was built in the 1920s and offers beautiful boarding and dining.

A cow skull collage shaped like a cow skull? This place screams west Texas. Gorgeous cacti and succulents lined the streets and grew up anywhere they could.

And art galleries like the Klepper bring culture and color to Marathon.

French Company Grocer offers fresh deli sandwiches aside deviled eggs the way my grandmother made them and a smattering of snacks, whole foods, local beer and odds and ends for locals and those traveling through.

French Co. Grocer is named after the original general store, French’s that operated from 1900 into the early seventies.

Downtown Marathon is a great place to stop and stay awhile or stop for lunch and watch the train go by as it has done for more than the past hundred years.