Terlingua (/tərˈlɪŋɡwə/ tər-LING-gwə) is a mining district and census-designated place (CDP) in southwestern Brewster County, Texas, United States.

It is located near the Rio Grande and the villages of Lajitas and Study Butte, Texas, as well as the Mexican state of Chihuahua.

The discovery of cinnabar, from which the metal mercury is extracted, in the mid-1880s brought miners to the area, creating a city of 2,000 people.

[3] According to the historian Kenneth Baxter Ragsdale, "Facts concerning the discovery of cinnabar in the Terlingua area are so shrouded in legend and fabrication that it is impossible to cite the date and location of the first quicksilver recovery."

[4] A man named Jack Dawson reportedly produced the first mercury from Terlingua in 1888, but the district got off to a slow start.

[5] By 1900, four mining companies had recovered 1000 flasks in the district: Lindheim and Dewees, Marfa and Mariposa, the California, and the Excelsior.

[4][6][7][8] George W. Wanless and Charles Allen began working the area of California Mountain around 1894 based on reports of Mexican miners from as early as 1850.

The origin of the name Terlingua may be a corruption of Tres Lenguas (which means "three tongues" in Spanish),[9] in reference to an early mine or local feature.

[10] Born on 2 November 1858 in Cleveland, Ohio, Howard E. Perry worked for his father in the Woods-Perry Lumber Company until he was 21.

Perry was offered increasingly more money for his property, which prompted him to hire the attorney Eugene Cartledge to investigate.

Udden was also responsible for discovering the great ore body located in the limestone under the Del Rio clay.

In essence, as Ragsdale notes, "Perry first perfected the technique of management in absentia" and "supervision-in-detail became the distinguishing feature of the Chicago-Terlingua correspondence."

And scarcely any man in the world but that would have lost it many years ago.” Perry also received semiweekly telegraphed production reports.

[4]: 34, 80–81, 84, 231, 248, 250 The beginning of the end to financial prosperity was in sight, however, by 1930, when Perry was forced into a $75,000 settlement with the adjoining Rainbow Mine.

Most of the production occurred on California Hill in cave-fill zones, which are solution caverns in the Devils River limestone.

[4]: 75 [10] The third-largest producer of quicksilver in the area was the Study Butte Mine, located five miles east of Terlingua.

The property was operated in World War II by the Texas Mercury Co. Cinnabar occurs in ore-bearing fractures or veins within a syenite intrusion.

Rafting and canoeing on the Rio Grande, mountain biking, camping, hiking, and motorcycling are some of the outdoor activities favored by tourists.

In the late 1970s, the Chili Cook-Off sponsored a “Mexican Fence-Climbing Contest” to spoof the U.S. government's planned reinforcement of the chain-link fence separating El Paso, Texas, from Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, and San Ysidro, California, from Tijuana, Mexico.

The fence the “chili heads” used was constructed by undocumented Mexican workers who labored annually for the Cook-Off organizers at $5 a day plus meals and rustic lodging.

[27] Near the general store is Terlingua Cemetery, with the earliest grave dating to 1903, when the cinnabar mining operation began.

The cemetery continues to be used to this day by Terlingua residents, and Dia de los Muertos is celebrated every year.

[29][30][31] Terlingua was the main filming location for the 1993 Kenny Rogers TV movie Rio Diablo.

[34] This area has a large amount of sunshine year round due to its stable descending air and high pressure.