The Daniels Farm House represents one of the last vestiges of West Texas pioneer farming in Big Bend National Park, Texas. Most of the small-scale farms in the Big Bend area quickly fell into ruin after the park was established in 1944. Larger-scale ranch structures survived in greater numbers, but the small-scale irrigated bottomland farms have not. The farm is located next to the Rio Grande.
History
The original landowner was Jesus Estrada, who sold the land to John O. Wedlin, a Swedish immigrant. Wedlin, who had farmed wheat in Kansas, leveled the fields, installing a pump-powered irrigation system, establishing one of the first such farms in the area. Wedlin also built the house now known as the Daniels Farm House as a storage shed for farm equipment. Wedlin lived about a mile away, raising wheat for eight years. He sold the farm to cattleman Joe H. Graham of Del Rio, Texas in 1926. Graham, who owned the Lou Buttrill Ranch in the northern Big Bend, used the grain from the Daniels operation to feed his cattle, turning them out in the fields in winter. The Grahams expanded the operation, but sold the northern of the property to John R. Daniels and Mary Coe Daniels of Presidio in 1937. The Daniels moved into the former storage shed, using it as their residence and adding a room to house a small store that catered to local residents in the Boquillas community. Daniels converted about to cotton. When the park was established in 1944, the Daniels moved away.
Description
The house is a two-room adobe building, about by. The house was roofed with cane latillas over aspen log vigas in a style traditional to the area. Th house's surroundings retain traces of the irrigated farm environment and possess good historical integrity. A small portion of the Daniels Farm comprising the house and its immediate surroundings is incorporated in the National Register of Historic Places listing, established on October 20, 1989. Much of the immediate area has been incorporated into the National Park Service's Rio Grande Village, otherwise known as Boquillas.
