Georganne Bradbury, left, and Rick Bradbury inspect their water well as they give a tour of their water system at their home on Terlingua Ranch in South Brewster County. The couple has garnered a reputation among locals for their services as the areas trusted water haulers, often delivering between three and four 500-gallon truckloads of water a day during peak tourism season.
For decades, the Terlingua community has survived by obeying the arid ways of the desert, conserving every trickle of water, and knowing its reserves won’t always be full. And it offers a prelude to the rest of the state. As Texas’ population booms, the need for clean and reliable water is outpacing the supply. And the finite resource faces additional duress from an increase of hotter days and aging infrastructure. By 2070,Between the 1880s and the 1940s, Terlingua was a mining town rich with cinnabar deposits, a source of mercury. The population boomed to more than 1,000 people and production peaked in the 1920s.
Only one of the five ranch wells supplies drinking water and supports ranch operations. It was purchased from a property owner after another went dry in 2011. A second keeps the community pool filled. The third well provides nonpotable water the association sells. A fourth well feeds nondrinking water into the tourists’ cabins. A fifth well is completely dry.
Terlingua Ranch, an association of more than 5,000 privately-owned tracts of land that form one of the area’s largest neighborhoods, sits 20 minutes north of Study Butte. The 200,000-acre ranch offers water for its approximately 1,500 full-time residents to purchase, but the service does come with restrictions.In addition to restricting the ranch’s water service, the association’s board members are encouraging property owners to develop their own independent water supply.
Booking prices have almost doubled since 2018. The average cost per night for a short-term rental was $130 in 2018. It is $250 today. “We loved Big Bend National Park and knew that it was getting discovered in a new way,” Emily, 28, said. Emily and Ziad do not have strict limits on how much water their guests may consume. Rather, they educate their visitors on water usage. They also installed components that control the water flow and lessen the output. They’ve reduced water consumption by roughly 20% since the start of 2024, they said.Slava Chupryna owns Space Cowboys. His rentals — geodesic domes and safari tents — sit on a hill made of volcanic rock.
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