In the opening scenes of the movie "Paris, Texas", actor Harry Dean Stanton wanders across a desolate stretch of Texas' Big Bend country with soaring rock formations like huge tombstones. He is traversing an area called the Devil's Graveyard, and German director Wim Wenders felt it set just the right mood for his morose, prize-winning film.
Located near the Mexican border in a remote area of Brewster County, the Devil's Graveyard is a little-known geologic wonder. The story of exactly how it got its name seems to have been lost, but it's easy to see how someone might have decided to call it that. If the devil were going to set up a graveyard, this spot with towering rock walls like stark monuments and scorching summer heat that sometimes can hit 130 degrees would be ideal.
No shortage of colorful names exists in the Big Bend. The graveyard lies next to Fizzle Flat. In the 1930s a barber named Whistler became a squatter in the graveyard area. The site where he set up an irrigated farm came to be known as Whistler Squat. Reaching the Devil's Graveyard isn't easy. It's situated on private ranch property far off any road. In addition to permission, getting there takes a four-wheel-drive vehicle, a helicopter or a rugged hike. "It's really a day's work to get in there on foot," says George Vose of Alpine.