Sul Ross State University Campus Tour

Sul Ross State opened in Alpine in June 1920 with 77 students, created to bring higher education to the remote, mountainous Big Bend. It grew from a normal college into a university in 1969, gave birth to the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association, and became the region's cultural anchor. Its hillside campus holds Depression-era stone buildings put up with New Deal money, a regional museum, and one of Texas's quirkiest landmarks: a school desk perched atop the hill behind campus. This walk covers the historic core and ends with a short, rocky hike up Hancock Hill, so wear sturdy shoes and carry water at this high-desert elevation of roughly 4,500 feet.

Sul Ross State sits on a hillside in Alpine, about 4,500 feet up in the Big Bend, and this walk captures what makes a college in such a remote place special: Depression-era stonework, a museum devoted to the borderlands, and a hilltop tradition that began with three students and an old school desk.

The school opened in June 1920 with 77 students, created to bring higher education to far West Texas, and it takes its name from Lawrence Sullivan Ross, the Civil War cavalry general who later served as governor and as president of Texas A&M. The Museum of the Big Bend is housed in a native-rock building financed through the Texas Centennial and built with WPA labor; it was dedicated in 1937 and reopened after a major renovation in 2007 with exhibits on the land and people of the Big Bend and northern Mexico. Lawrence Hall, a 1938 women's dormitory built with Public Works Administration money, shows off the rugged local stone that gives the older campus its character.

Then the walk turns into a short hike. A rocky trail of about 20 minutes climbs Hancock Hill to the Desk, which by the usual account was hauled up in 1981 by three industrial technology students. A notebook left inside has been collecting hikers' thoughts ever since, and the reward is a sweeping view over Alpine and the surrounding mountains.

Wear sturdy shoes, carry water, and give yourself time to linger at the top. Few campus walks anywhere end with a view like this one.