The rural settlement is located 11 miles (16 kilometers) south-southeast of the Panther Junction visitor center in what is now the Big Bend National Park, and is accessible only by high-clearance vehicle.

During the Spanish Texas era, candelilla was harvested in the Big Bend and Chisos Mountains region of the Trans-Pecos.

[5] The wax plant provided a malleable solid for candles used by the Spanish missions in Texas fulfilling the Franciscan and Jesuit orders.

Wood established a wax factory on the embankment of Glenn Springs employing a population in the mountainous Chihuahuan Desert region.

By 1916, the candelillero factory consisted of a boiler room with tall smoke stacks, six large extraction vats, and a water storage system for the production of candelilla wax.