Bead-Van Horn Amber Gold Glass Circle TB

This trackable is unusual for its longevity and movement. In the six-year period, 2010-15, the owner released a total of 2168 trackables in the United States (96%) and Europe (4%). This trackable is one of the 5% of the total that circulated for at least 5 years and had been moved at least 25 times.  That is a rate of at least five drops per year for five years, or a drop every 73 days.  As of 22-Oct-20 this particular trackable had survived for 5.3 years and had been moved by 36 cachers, for an average release every 54 days. Keep it moving!

Please drop it in a Premium Member only OR a rural cache near a busy trail or road. Do not place it in an urban cache or abandon it at a caching event where there is no security.  Transport the bug in the original plastic bag for as long as the bag lasts; the bag keeps the trackable clean, protects the number and prevents tangling with other items.  Otherwise, take the trackable anywhere you wish.  No permission is needed to leave the U.S.

Trackable photos are appreciated, but do not show the tracking code. The photos will re-posted here.

This is one of a series of large beads obtained from different places and converted into travel bugs.  They are named for Texas towns with interesting names or histories.

Van Horn was named after a Union Officer, while Culberson County was named after a Confederate.  The history of Van Horn begins with the discovery of Van Horn Wells, south of town near the present ghost town of Lobo.  The credit of discovery goes to Jefferson Van Horne (with an "e"), an Army Major who later commanded Ft. Bliss.  The town of Van Horn Wells was a stage stop on the San Diego - San Antonio Mail Route.  During the Civil War, the wells were captured by Confederates.  The Union Officer in charge was James Judson Van Horn, who was no relation at all to Major Jefferson Van Horne, other than being brothers-in-arms.  

In 1881 when the railroad (the Texas and Pacific) came through, the town of Van Horn grew around the tracks and Van Horn Wells was left where it was, providing water and later irrigating cotton fields and vegetable crops.  The railroad put in wells of their own and 1886 saw the post office established as well as the town's first store.  By 1890 the population was almost 500.

The first person to die in Van Horn was an infant child of the Beach family, in 1881, whereupon the father Beach gave a plat of land west of town for use as a cemetery.   According to local legend, the first adult to die was rancher AS Goynes, and his passing was not without irony.  In tribute to Van Horn's climate, Goynes supposedly suggested the motto, "This Town Is So Healthy We Had to Shoot a Man to Start a Cemetery," which later hung in the lobby of the Clark Hotel.   Shortly thereafter Goynes was shot dead by his brother-in-law in a feud over a watering hole, thereby becoming the first man buried in the Van Horn cemetery.

The first school in Van Horn was established in 1887, when Mrs. C. M. Cox taught seven pupils in her home.  By 1890 an estimated 450 people were living in the area, and the town had twelve businesses, including a general store, a hotel, a real estate office, a blacksmith, and a lawyer.  Despite such signs of growth and sophistication, however, Van Horn could still be a wild place.  The new century was ushered in by the murder of the postmaster in 1900 by "Red" Sealy.   In 1914 John Marine was appointed the second sheriff of Culberson County, serving out the unexpired term of his predecessor, JH Feeley, who had been killed in a gunfight.    

Tourism became an important industry in the 1930s with the opening of nearby Carlsbad Caverns and later the opening of Guadalupe Mountains National Park.  The completion of Interstate 10 through the edge town has mightily boosted the economy.  Over 11,000 people pass through Van Horn daily.