My sister Andrea

Ann left, me, right

I'm the oldest of eight children, all still living. Andrea "Ann" is a year younger than me. We were raised like twins. When I moved to the Big Bend area, in the 70s, she visited me often. In the early 1990s, I sold her a piece of my land where she spent the next 20 or more years building her lovely and unique home. It took that long because she worked as an archaeologist and couldn't build full time. She was determined to build it herself, by hand, unlike me who hired my work done, starting with dynamiting a pad for my earth-sheltered home. Mine was done in less than 3 years.

Ann's house, still not finished when this photo was taken

By the time Covid came along Ann had been working parttime. She retired completely then. She wrote two books on Big Bend archaeology. After many delays, the second one is in the process of being published. Here's a link to an article that includes her.

https://bigbendsentinel.com/2023/07/12/they-were-us-an-oral-history-of-the-big-bend-national-park-archaeological-survey/?fbclid=IwAR0e2z1_JkkW0SMgiEgZHtaoxAjptqncFvOKn9qZMlmmlWyjKt82GQXhFHM

Here's an excerpt from the article.

 ANDREA OHL: When the park project started up, I started begging for a position. At the time they really didn’t hire women. I kept asking Bob [Mallouf], and he invited me to come out; I was trying to prove myself. 

I was going to meet him [at the site]; he told me how to get there. I had a little two-wheel-drive pickup. I was about halfway there when I got hung up in an arroyo. I was just mortified.

So I hiked about two-and-a-half miles to camp, and I left a note on the Jeep saying, ‘Help!’ Then I walked two-and-a-half miles back to my vehicle and waited. Two young guys who were on the crew came, and they dug me out. 

By the time Bob was there, I was already at the site like nothing had ever happened. I went around hiking with them and had a great time. 

It turned out we had an April blizzard. I didn’t want to quit. Joe, whose crew I was assigned to, and I were the last ones to quit after we couldn’t see the ground anymore. 

When we got back to camp Bob asked Joe if he thought I could do the job, and Joe said, absolutely, hire her. Then Bob asked me when I could start. 

That was thrilling. I love the park — I’ve always loved the park and being paid to hike around it was my wildest dream.

Here's Ann above her home on her 80th birthday. Neither of us can climb to the top of our mountain anymore.

She has a passion for the wildflowers growing on her land and has contributed hundreds of specimens to Sul Ross's extensive collection. (Here's a link to the plants on our lands.  https://christmasmountainsplants.blogspot.com/)