Terlingua
One of Terlingua’s original safe spaces will be used now by border wall contractors. Austin-based owner Harlan Stanley confirmed that 20 spaces of the Terlingua Ghosttown RV Park will be rented to Kiewit Construction for two months, starting August 3. Terlingua Ghosttown RV Park has been used by locals for long-term housing, a policy of kindness that started under the previous owner Daniel DiBona, who still helps Stanley run the park.
DiBona, known as Dr. Dan — because he previously was one of the only medical doctors serving the Terlingua area — claimed in a now-deleted Facebook post this past spring to have declined an offer of $500,000 from border wall contractors seeking a place to stay in Terlingua for a year. The decision was applauded as an example of business owners refusing to profit personally off the unpopular border wall. DiBona, now fully supportive of the rental agreement, is facing threats from community members angry about the border wall, especially on social media.
“It’s moments like these that show who has integrity and who doesn’t,” said one commenter. “Time to start fires!? I like fire but only the fire that brings justice,” another Facebook user posted.
“The prevailing demand from locals is simple: enforce a moral purity test at my door. Refuse water, power, privacy, safety and shelter,” DiBona said in a lengthy written statement. “Make the wall workers’ lives miserable until they pack up and leave, never to return. I refuse to do it. I’m at war against this wall. People are not battlegrounds. Anyone who knows me over time will understand my internal need to strive towards ethical consistency.”
With limited housing opportunities in the Big Bend region, RV parks have become popular options for contractors and tourists alike. Loma Paloma RV park in Presidio has been renting space to Fisher Industries for the past two months, and two more RV parks have begun development in Presidio since the announcement of the border wall construction. Stanley claims that the change of heart to rent to Kiewit is purely a business decision in a phone call with Big Bend Sentinel.
“There’s a major problem in Terlingua [of people] who come in and want to use the [RV] park for free.The park is not designed for people to live there, it’s designed for tourism and for people to come and go,” Stanley said. He claims that RV reservations are down due to high gas prices, and renting to Kiewit helps DiBona with his legal fees. DiBona is facing charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, and is due to stand trial.
Stanley says that he is against the wall, but in support of the proposed east River Road, which would be built through the national park. The road has drawn criticism from environmentalists and locals as an unnecessary disruption to endangered habitats. Access roads elsewhere along the border have been used as smuggling routes through harsh terrain.
“It doesn’t matter if it’s a wall or a road, it sends the message that this place is dangerous,” said Jeff Leach, the owner of Venga, the coffee shop located next to the RV park. Leach has been outspoken against the wall, going so far as to build a steel replica outside his business topped by a banner that reads “Stop the Steel.” When asked about the arrival of the contractors, Leach said, “It’s just a gut punch. I don’t think they’ll have a very warm welcome.”
The tension within the community is concerning other business owners. Summers are slow in Terlingua, and every dollar is necessary.
“I’m worried about the contractors, and the impact this will have on the community,” says Tamra Drilling, the owner of the neighboring High Sierra Bar and El Dorado hotel. One of her employees had been staying at the Ghosttown RV park before being asked to move his trailer to accommodate the arriving construction workers.
Since taking over the RV park in 2024, Stanley has invested in expanding the park to its current size, upgrading the landscaping and water systems. The RV park has stunning views of the Chisos Basin, which are partially obstructed by Leach’s steel replica border wall.
“It’s pretty tone-deaf for them to rent an RV park in the middle of Terlingua. But these are just employees, I don’t hold anything against them,” Leach said, pointing out that policing every customer in his coffee shop will be difficult.
Impending legal case against Dr. Dan
When first contacted by the Sentinel on Thursday, DiBona said he was conflicted about renting the park to contractors and that it had been done surreptitiously by a Kiewit contractor using the park’s website to reserve space.
However, by Sunday, in a lengthy statement, DiBona said he was all in favor of the rentals, because, although he is against the wall, there shouldn’t be a vindictive harassment or exclusion of “wage workers” looking for a place to stay to build roads in the national park.
Part of his uncertainty, he said, was his ongoing complaint that some people in Terlingua and the Brewster County Sheriff’s Office had made it impossible to live in a place that he loved and wanted to make a beacon of kindness and positivity in Terlingua.
Authorities at the sheriff’s office arrested him in the summer of 2024 and charged him with assault with a deadly weapon after they allege he stuck his pistol’s barrel into the forehead of a man staying at his RV park, hard enough to leave a mark. DiBona told the Sentinel that the sheriff’s office had repeatedly shrugged off his calls for help at the park with his accusations of ongoing drug smuggling and the unruliness of the men ultimately involved in his confrontation.
He said he only pulled out a weapon, because he knew the man he confronted was known to carry a gun, and he told deputies in a statement that the man he was accused of assaulting ran himself into the barrel of his gun.
DiBona said that the district attorney’s office offered him a plea deal of eight years in prison, something he can’t accept, and he questions why law enforcement has been so intent to put him away in prison without ever doing anything to address his previous complaints, particularly about drug smuggling.
DiBona said his trial is scheduled for September 21, although the official court docket doesn’t include that date. It does include a recent filing for the prosecution’s witness list.
While an impending trial and possible prison sentence surely was a cause of stress (along with significant legal bills for a defense attorney), DiBona said, he made it clear that his ultimate decision on moving ahead with rental was based on something completely different.
“I am writing this under circumstances I never imagined when I settled in Terlingua,” he wrote. “As I prepare for an upcoming trial, the personal safety threats against me have become a daily reality. Local group chats and barroom gossip have boiled over into an ugly mob rage, condemning my property and my character to hell.”
