Private Bids Rejected For Christmas Mountains

It's beginning to look like the people of Texas may have scored a victory. A couple of months ago, Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson had announced that his office was going to sell a parcel of public land containing the Christmas Mountains to a private buyer. Bids had been received from a couple in Dallas and a businessman in Houston.

This caused a furor across the state. When the land was donated to the state a few years ago, it was on condition that it not be sold to private interests but must remain available for use by the citizens of Texas. The agreement at that time stated the land must be offered to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department or the National Park Service, if the Land Office was going to get rid of it.

Texas Parks and Wildlife said they did not want the land. They have been critically underfunded by the Republicans in the last few years and probably could not afford to take on a new area. I imagine they also didn't want to upset state Republican leaders at a time when they are still trying to get adequately funded for their current parks and wildlife areas.

But the National Park Service did want the land. It is adjacent to the Big Bend National Park, and would make an excellent addition to the national park.

But Patterson didn't want to give the land to them. He said it was because they wouldn't allow guns in the park. Personally, I think he just wanted to go through with the private sale he had planned. After all, nothing speaks louder to a Republican than money.

However, this is an election year. It looks like the state Republican leadership was afraid the public outrage might translate into lost votes. Because yesterday, the Land Office rejected both of the private bids without comment.

With both private bids rejected, it looks like the Christmas Mountains will soon become a part of the Big Bend National Park. This means it will remain available for use by all the citizens of Texas.

The sad part of this whole affair is that the organization that gave the land to the state was very upset by the attempt to sell it to private interests after promising not to do that. They have stated that they might not give any more gifts to Texas because they aren't sure they can trust the state government to keep its promises.

They just learned a valuable lesson about our Republican leaders -- unless you're a rich corporation, you really can't trust them.