Main Control Center in near MARFA TEXAS-as well as location for the NWO USA\Control Center in USA is in a town called Marfa (M-A-R-F-A) TexasMarfa is a city in and the county seat of Presidio County in the high desert of far West Texas in the Southwestern United States. The population was 2,121 at the 2000 census. Its ZIP code is 79843.Marfa was founded in the early 1880s as a railroad water stop, and grew quickly through the 1920s. Marfa Army Airfield (Fort D.A. Russell) was located east of the town during World War II and trained several thousand pilots before closing in 1945 (the abandoned site is still visible ten miles east of the city). The base was also used as the training ground for many of the U.S. Army's Chemical mortar battalions.
Today Marfa is a tourist destination, located between the Davis Mountains and Big Bend National Park. Attractions include the historical architecture and classic Texas town square, modern art, soaring, and the Marfa lights.
Amateur etymologist Barry Popik has shown that Marfa is named after Marfa Strogoff, a character in the Jules Verne novel Michael Strogoff and its theatrical adaptation; the origin was reported in the Galveston Daily News on December 17, 1882, after the Marfa railroad station was established but before Marfa received a post office in 1883.
Starting Oct 1st, 2009 the city will no longer have a local police department. The Presidio County Sheriff will patrol the city which Marfa is the county seat of Presidio.
The Handbook of Texas states that the wife of a railroad executive "reportedly" suggested the name "Marfa" after a name in the Fyodor Dostoevsky novel The Brothers Karamazov, which she read.[3]
[edit] Geography
Marfa is located at 
30°18′43″N 104°1′29″W / 30.31194°N 104.02472°W / 30.31194; -104.02472 (30.311863, -104.024779)[4].
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 1.6 square miles (4.1 km²), all of it land. It is a small city.
[edit] Modern Art and minimalism
In 1971, Donald Judd, the renowned minimalist artist, moved to Marfa from New York City. After renting summer houses for a couple of years he bought two large hangars, some smaller buildings and started to permanently install his art. While this started with his building in New York, the buildings in Marfa (now The Block, Judd Foundation) allowed him to install his works on a larger scale. In 1976 he bought the first of two ranches that would become his primary places of residence, continuing a long love affair with the desert landscape surrounding Marfa. Later, with assistance from the Dia Art Foundation in New York, Judd acquired decommissioned Fort D.A. Russell, and began transforming the fort's buildings into art spaces in 1979. Judd's vision was to house large collections of individual artists' work on permanent display, as a sort of anti-museum. Judd believed that the prevailing model of a museum, where art is shown for short periods of time, does not allow the viewer an understanding of the artist or their work as they intended.
Since Judd's death in 1994, two foundations have been working to maintain his legacy: the Chinati Foundation and Judd Foundation. Every year The Chinati Foundation holds an Open House event where artists, collectors, and enthusiasts come from around the world to visit Marfa's art. Since 1997 Open House has been co-sponsored by both foundations and attracts thousands of visitors from around the world.
The Chinati Foundation now occupies more than 10 buildings at the site and has on permanent exhibit work by Carl Andre, Ingólfur Arnarsson, John Chamberlain, Dan Flavin, Roni Horn, Ilya Kabakov, Richard Long, Claes Oldenberg, Coosje van Bruggen, John Wesley, and David Rabinowitch.
In recent years, a new wave of artists has moved to Marfa to live and work. As a result, new gallery spaces have opened in the downtown area. Furthermore, The Lannan Foundation has established a writers-in-residency program, a Marfa theater group has formed, and a multi-functional art space called Ballroom Marfa has begun to show art films, host musical performances, and exhibit other art installations.
[edit] Marfa lights
Main article:
Marfa lights
Official viewing platform, east of Marfa
Marfa may be most famous for the Marfa lights, visible every clear night between Marfa and the Paisano Pass when one is facing southwest (toward the Chinati Mountains). According to the Handbook of Texas Online, "...at times they appear colored as they twinkle in the distance. They move about, split apart, melt together, disappear, and reappear. Presidio County residents have watched the lights for over a hundred years. The first historical record of them recalls that in 1883 a young cowhand, Robert Reed Ellison, saw a flickering light while he was driving cattle through Paisano Pass and wondered if it was the campfire of Apache Indians. He was told by other settlers that they often saw the lights, but when they investigated they found no ashes or other evidence of a campsite.[5]
Presidio County has built a viewing station nine miles east of town on U.S. 67 near the site of the old air base. Each year, enthusiasts gather for the annual Marfa Lights Festival.
These objects have been featured and mentioned in various media, including the television show Unsolved Mysteries and an episode of King of the Hill ("Of Mice and Little Green Men") and in an episode of Disney Channel Original Series So Weird. A fictional book by David Morrell, 2009's "The Shimmer", is inspired by the lights.
[edit] Filming of Giant and other films
The famous 1956 Warner Bros. film Giant, starring Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, James Dean, Sal Mineo, Carroll Baker and Dennis Hopper, was filmed in Marfa for two months. Director George Stevens did not have a closed set and actively encouraged the townspeople to come by, either to watch the shooting, or visit with the cast and crew, or take part as extras, dialect coaches, bit players and stagehands.
In August 2006, two movie production units used locations in and around Marfa: the film There Will Be Blood, an adaptation of the Upton Sinclair novel Oil, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, and the Coen Brothers' adaptation of the Cormac McCarthy novel No Country for Old Men.[6][7]
The 1981 play (and 1982 film) Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean were set in and around Marfa; no filming was done there, however.
In 2008, Marfa held the first annual Marfa Film Festival, which lasted from May 1-5.
[edit] Travel
In a January 2009 magazine article, lifestyle publication Southern Living sent a writer to explore far west Texas and its various small and eclectic settlements. In 'Wide Open in West Texas' Taylor Bruce writes:
- "Marfa, Alpine, and Marathon sit along U.S. 90 like hitching posts. On first glance, the three are all Mayberrys of another era. Marfa’s one blinking red light; the Alpine Dairy Queen and Big Bend Saddlery; Marathon’s three blocks of storefronts facing the railroad. But I visit in search of the defining quality that draws people 400 miles west of San Antonio to live and to visit. I’m looking for the real towns, what makes them so alluring and freeing."
Bruce goes on to describe an evening in gallery-rich Marfa: "The two rooms of Yard Dog glow in the pitch-black stillness of the nearly 2,000-person town. Inside, the scene teems with locals, some who look like Willie Nelson, some like Brooklyn hipsters, a stylish mix of rancher and Warhol seen all over Marfa."
[edit] Demographics
According to the latest U.S. census[1] of 2000, there were 2,121 people, 863 households, and 555 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,354.6 people per square mile (521.6/km²). There were 1,126 housing units at an average density of 719.1/sq mi (276.9/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 91.04% White, 0.28% African American, 0.38% Native American, 0.05% Asian, 7.50% from other races, and 0.75% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 6.87% of the population.
There were 863 households out of which 29.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 47.4% were married couples living together, 13.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 35.6% were non-families. 31.4% of all households were made up of individuals and 17.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.35 and the average family size was 2.99.
In the city the population was spread out with 24.9% under the age of 18, 7.9% from 18 to 24, 24.2% from 25 to 44, 24.5% from 45 to 64, and 18.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 39 years. For every 100 females there were 101.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 100.9 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $24,712, and the median income for a family was $32,328. Males had a median income of $25,804 versus $18,382 for females. The per capita income for the city was $14,636. About 15.7% of families and 20.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 24.6% of those under age 18 and 26.9% of those age 65 or over.
