About 120 miles due west of San Antonio Texas between Uvalde and Del Rio, there’s a little “dip in the road” along highway 90 that goes by the name of Brackettville. It was originally founded under the name, “Las Moras” in 1852. It was given this name from a nearby spring and creek that it fed. Las Moras was a supply stop on the road from San Antonio to El Paso and a supply depot for the U.S. Army’s Fort Clark. The town’s name was later changed to “Brackett”, after Oscar Brackett, who owned the first dry goods store in the area. In 1873, a post office was awarded the township and “ville” was added to the name to differentiate from another town.
In the spring of 2014, my wanderlust began to stir. I began to ponder just where I’d like to go. I wanted to go where there might be some interesting photographic opportunities as well as locations with some historical significance. For years, off and on, being the movie buff that I am, I’d wanted to visit the old John Wayne “Alamo” movie set called “Alamo Village.” After a bit of research, I discovered that as a tourist attraction, it had been closed for the better part of 5 years.
So, I thought to myself, well, I'd just waited too long and those gates were closed. But, on a lark, I just decided to do a bit of research and detective work. With the assistance of the Texas Historical Society and a few phone calls. I discovered that the property still remained under the ownership of the Shahan family. I was put in touch with Tully Shahan’s secretary (Tully was the son of former owner Happy and Virginia Shahan). His secretary got me in touch with Rich Curilla, who had been at Alamo Village for almost 30 years straight and was now the caretaker of the property.
Rich and I had a few phone conversations and I told him that I’d like to come out and photograph the old movie set. Rich had been working at “Alamo Village” pretty-much since it’s opening. But more about that later.
We scheduled a date and time to meet on October 11th, 2014. Suzann and I were graciously treated to a personal tour of the Alamo set and San Antonio de Bexar by Rich, who was an absolute WEALTH of information. We followed Rich as we passed through the gate and traveled slowly over rocky roads with old "Alamo Village" signs overgrown by desert vegetation pointing the way. As we rounded the corner, drove up to the set and saw the Alamo for the first time, tears came to Suzann's eyes and I choked up a bit as we were both a little overcome by a wave of nostalgia. Rich had worked with such stars as Jimmy Stewart, James Garner, Dean Martin and many other Hollywood notables who came to the set to film movies. He offered many great back-stories about the actors and movies filmed there in addition to information about the movie set and buildings themselves. Suzann and I wish to extend our profound thanks to Rich for his hospitality and his time.
- Mark & Suzann Smith, October - 2014
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In the spring of 2014, my wanderlust began to stir. I began to ponder just where I’d like to go. I wanted to go where there might be some interesting photographic opportunities as well as locations with some historical significance. For years, off and on, being the movie buff that I am, I’d wanted to visit the old John Wayne “Alamo” movie set called “Alamo Village.” After a bit of research, I discovered that as a tourist attraction, it had been closed for the better part of 5 years.
So, I thought to myself, well, I'd just waited too long and those gates were closed. But, on a lark, I just decided to do a bit of research and detective work. With the assistance of the Texas Historical Society and a few phone calls. I discovered that the property still remained under the ownership of the Shahan family. I was put in touch with Tully Shahan’s secretary (Tully was the son of former owner Happy and Virginia Shahan). His secretary got me in touch with Rich Curilla, who had been at Alamo Village for almost 30 years straight and was now the caretaker of the property.
Rich and I had a few phone conversations and I told him that I’d like to come out and photograph the old movie set. Rich had been working at “Alamo Village” pretty-much since it’s opening. But more about that later.
We scheduled a date and time to meet on October 11th, 2014. Suzann and I were graciously treated to a personal tour of the Alamo set and San Antonio de Bexar by Rich, who was an absolute WEALTH of information. We followed Rich as we passed through the gate and traveled slowly over rocky roads with old "Alamo Village" signs overgrown by desert vegetation pointing the way. As we rounded the corner, drove up to the set and saw the Alamo for the first time, tears came to Suzann's eyes and I choked up a bit as we were both a little overcome by a wave of nostalgia. Rich had worked with such stars as Jimmy Stewart, James Garner, Dean Martin and many other Hollywood notables who came to the set to film movies. He offered many great back-stories about the actors and movies filmed there in addition to information about the movie set and buildings themselves. Suzann and I wish to extend our profound thanks to Rich for his hospitality and his time.
- Mark & Suzann Smith, October - 2014
NEXT PAGE