A university, hospital, library, and retail make Alpine the center of the sprawling 12,000 square miles (3,108,000 ha) but wide open Big Bend area (combined population 12,500)[dubious – discuss] including Brewster, Presidio, and Jeff Davis counties.

The area had been a campsite for cattlemen tending their herds between 1878 and the spring of 1882, when a town of tents was created by railroad workers and their families.

[8] The Holland Hotel, built during a brief mercury mining boom,[7] was designed by Henry Trost, a distinguished regional architect.

The 600-acre main campus on the lower slopes of Hancock Hill contains 20 or so buildings, most designed in Classical Revival style, and all faced with red brick and white trim.

[23] On the Texas Education Agency report card for 2013–2014, the high school, with 277 students in grades 9–12, reached "Met Standard" overall, while receiving Distinction designations in mathematics, social studies, top 25% closing performance gaps, and postsecondary readiness.

[24] The Middle School, with 309 students in grades 5–8, also reached "Met Standard", while receiving Distinction designations in mathematics and social Studies.

Alpine hosts the Big Bend Mountain Ramble, a "mile-high cross country meet, the highest race in Texas", as well as high-school and junior-high relays.

Subjects include the area's Indian tribes, the Buffalo soldiers, the mining era, the stagecoach, the railroad, and the history of Big Bend National Park.

An individual quoted in a Federal Communications Commission report stated that in daylight hours it was possible to get radio from Fort Stockton.

Additionally Sul Ross students publish the Skyline and there is a resort sale publication called The Lajitas Sun.

An FCC report in 1985 stated that while there was readership in the county for the San Angelo Standard Times and the Odessa American, "The two papers seldom carry articles covering the Alpine area.

[30] The Alpine Public Library opened a facility in February, 2012, offering computer use with free Wi-Fi and access to online data, as well as traditional books, magazines, and other periodicals, CDs and DVDs, and a used bookstore, Re-Reads.

The Brewster County Courthouse and Jail was built in 1887–1888 by Tom Lovett, a local contractor, who apparently designed the buildings, as well.

The adjoining Brewster County Jail is distinguished by a crenelated brick parapet wall, suggesting "a fortress-like impregnability".

Nearby Marathon has the Gage Hotel; the historic hotel Limpia of Fort Davis; Marfa with the Chinati Foundation Museum of Minimalist Art; the ghost town of Terlingua and the golf resort of Lajitas; and the River Road, FM 170, a 120-mile scenic route through the majestic Rio Grande Valley between Presidio and the Big Bend parks.

Blue Creek Trail follows a hiking path, mostly along dry stream channels, passing towering rocks of vivid earth tones.

Arlington Southwest Cemetery, located 4 miles east of Alpine, is a memorial funded by the Big Bend Veterans for Peace.

[33] Trappings of Texas, in April, is an exhibit and sale of custom gear and Western art held at the Museum of the Big Bend.

Cinco de Mayo[34] includes a parade, enchilada dinner, music and dancing, car show, and Grand Mercado at Kokernot Field.

National Intercollegiate Rodeo Big Bend Octane Fest,[40] hosted by The Stable Performance Cars in early October.

This weekend-long festival includes a car show, driving tours around the Big Bend, Marfa, Alpine, Fort Davis, and Marathon areas, auctions, and more, for antique, classic, and performance automobiles.

Parade of Lights, December A mural in the former post office at 109 West E St was painted as part of the New Deal public works programs during the Great Depression.

Completed in 1940, this mural is by a Spanish-born and trained artist, Jose Moya del Pino, who was living and working in San Francisco.

They are each reading: a book, a magazine, and a tabloid newspaper, celebrating how the post office brings information and education to small towns and cattle ranches.

On the horizon, the Twin Sisters Mountain mark the location, with the town in the middle distance, including, at the behest of townspeople, the characteristic red-brick buildings of the Sul Ross State campus.

Alpine is a crew change location for Union Pacific freight trains, making for constant activity along the tracks.

In recent years, Alpine has served as an unofficial stop for bicyclists riding across the United States due to its location on the Adventure Cycling Association's Southern Tier Bicycle Route.