two images by Peter Koch

[bdann]

I have these on postcards.  Peter Koch was a well known figure in the early days of the park.  He was a photographer and a natural history filmmaker.  He and his wife moved to Big Bend in 1944 (someone will correct me if I'm wrong on the year).  His wife, Etta Koch, wrote "Lizards on the Mantel, Burros at the Door: A Big Bend Memoir", with their daughter June Cooper Price.  June wrote "Exploring the Big Bend Country", which is based on Peter's writings and photographs.   I'd highly recommend you all purchase these two books from the Big Bend Bookstore.

This is a remarkable photo of a Golden Eagle with it's prey:


and the Sierra del Carmen with Boquillas in the distance:

[SHANEA]

That's really cool Bdann.  Thanks for sharing.  Wow, the Rio Grande was actually a river back then...    - kinda, no it is sad, no kinda about it, that the Rio Grande has become so messed up as it has.  We, the human species, have done just a bang up job of screwing up the environment.  From the honeybee kill off - to recent reports that all of a sudden a lot of birds are dying off....  

Did the Koch family have a stone house out on old ore road, if I remember correctly?  Not a lot left of it - really overgrown on the inside.   Is he the one that moved the family out there and was gone a lot of the time with his photography, leaving the wife to raise the kids?  He died or ran off or they got divorced?  Or, am I confusing this with someone else?

[bdann]

Did the Koch family have a stone house out on old ore road, if I remember correctly?  Not a lot left of it - really overgrown on the inside.   Is he the one that moved the family out there and was gone a lot of the time with his photography, leaving the wife to raise the kids?  He died or ran off or they got divorced?  Or, am I confusing this with someone else?

If I'm not mistaken, they lived in the house that's on the hill overlooking where the Hot Springs parking area is.  Not sure about the divorce part, but he was away from his family a lot with his photography.  (need to read the book again)

[bdann]

There's a pic of their semi-permanent campsite in the Basin on this page: http://www.nps.gov/bibe/historyculture/people.htm

[bdann]

oh, and another interesting thing from Etta's book...she painted the murals on the walls of the buildings at the Hot Springs.
http://www.hal-pc.org/~lfa/Gurg04.html

[randell]

I've read the Lizards on the Mantle... book.  I remember they had the trailer in the basin, but I don't remember where they moved after that.  It was a very good book.  I haven't read the second book.  Somehow it slipped past my radar....must read now!

[Casa Grande]

that golden eagle shot is outstanding!

[BigBendHiker]

Thanks, bdann!  Great pictures.  Peter Koch was certainly one of the early pioneers who captured BIBE on film.


BBH

[tjavery]

...and the Sierra del Carmen with Boquillas in the distance:...

Man, just look at that crisp, clean air!