Stories from the Pecos
“When I was 3 years old, I fell into the Pecos River at Joe Chandler’s fishing camp while walking down the bank with my mother. My mother could not swim, but she could scream until my father fished me out. As soon as we got back to Odessa, my mother enrolled both of us in swimming lessons. My swimming instructor, who became my elementary school coach (Max Ford), asked me to join the Odessa Aquatic Team. The Odessa Aquatic Team was where I met my wife (Kathleen McCollum) of 49 years when I was 9 years old.”
- Michael J. McCulloch
DVM, Pecos River landowner
“I remember a bitter cold winter day in the early 1950s. My Dad and Tex Masterson took me and Tex’s son Bobby for a duck hunt on the Pecos River. We drove to a spot where we had permission and parked the car on the hill above the river. After walking down a little way, Bobby said he was going back to the car. Dad, Tex and I proceeded on. We could see lots of ducks landing on the river, and we moved as quietly as possible to a good hunting spot. Then the car horn started blaring. It was Bobby, who had grown cold and impatient. Well, all the ducks spooked and flew off, and we didn’t get a shot off that day.”
- Luke Shipp
Rancher, Crockett County
(center, with best friend Bobby at right)
“My 9-year-old grandson’s favorite place to fish is the Pecos River just a few miles out of Iraan. The fish are not that big, but Dawson catches a bunch of them and that makes him happy. But now we’re in a drought, and that makes him sad. “The river is drying up” he cried, “and it makes me sad because the wild animals depend on the Pecos River for water to stay alive.” He is also concerned about water for endangered species and for farming the crops we need. Dawson even came up with a way to get cleaner and more water to the river—it involved old oil pipelines from the coast to the river and a desalination station to pump fresh water up to the Pecos. Then he could get his favorite fishing spot back! ”
- DeLane Cagle, 2023
Grandmother to Dawson, Iraan
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