How Three Gifts To UT Gave All Texans A Fourth: The Gift Of The Stars (re-run)

WF Strong talks about how the McDonald Observatory came to be.

The post How Three Gifts To UT Gave All Texans A Fourth: The Gift Of The Stars (re-run) appeared first on KUT & KUTX Studios -- Podcasts.

Episode Transcript

WF Strong (00:00):
As it is Christmas time, I got to thinking about the great gifts, money,

(00:04):
and property given to the state of Texas.
Over the years, I'm gonna tellyou about three such gifts
that led to a priceless fourth.
In 1926, a bachelor bankerdied in Paris, Texas.
A rich bachelor banker that is hisestate was worth about $1.2 million.
Today, that would be about $17 million.

(00:24):
Enough to buy a Whataburger foreverybody in Dallas and Houston,
with enough leftover to watersize the fries in his will.
The banker left 90% of his moneyto the University of Texas to buy a
telescope and build an observatory.
The B'S name was William Johnson McDonald.
No relation to theMcDonald's hamburger chain.

(00:45):
Well, as you might expect, Mr.McDonald's relatives didn't like him
leaving all that money for a telescope.
They believed that anyone whowould do such a thing must be, by
definition, a bit crazy, so they sued.
Fortunately, Mr. McDonald hadshared his telescope dream
with of all people his barber.

(01:06):
He said that astronomy was a youngscience of great potential if it had
the right funding, and he hoped thatone day a telescope would be built
that would allow astronomers to seethe gold plated streets of heaven.
He was also well known as an amateurscientist, so the jury had little
trouble believing that his wishwas the product of a sane mind.

(01:27):
Upon appeal, his relatives got morethan McDonald had left them, but UT
ended up with about $800,000, whichis still 11 million in today's money.
Once UT had the money, they hadto go shopping for a mountain
to put the observatory on.
That must've been fun.
Mountain shopping has got tobe something that you get to do
only once or twice in a lifetime.

(01:49):
Lucky for ut they were located ina state that had West Texas in it
with some of the finest stargazingpotential in North America.
After driving several thousand milesaround the region, inspecting various
sites for altitude, dark skies,cloudless nights, and poor prospects
of rain, they found what they werelooking for out by Fort Davis.

(02:10):
It had no official name, but thelocals called it Flat Top Mountain.
It was part of a ranch perfectly namedfor that region, the UUP and U Down Ranch.
I love that.
President Henry Benedict of UTwrote a letter to the owner of that
mountain, Mrs. Violet MacGyver.
He told her a McDonald's gift andof the university's great need for

(02:32):
a mountain to put the university on.
Benedict wrote that her mountain wasideally suited for such an observatory.
That quote, optical test already madeshowed that the Davis Mountains region was
the best in Texas, perhaps the best in theUnited States for astronomical purposes.
He asked her if she might considergiving her mountain to science.

(02:53):
I think Violet surprisedhim when she did just that.
She wrote back almost immediatelyand gave UT the entire top
of the mountain, 200 acres.
She also gave UT the land to builda road to the summit, the resulting
highway spur 78 is to this day,the highest highway in Texas.
UT built the observatory namedit for William Johnson McDonald.

(03:15):
The mountain was officially named MountLocke after Violet's grandfather GS
Locke, from whom she had inherited it.
Violet wrote to UT and said she wasdelighted to quote, have her grandfather's
name perpetuated in the Davis Mountains.
She said he would've been pleased toleave his name among the mountains,

(03:35):
which he had known and loved so long.
Anyone with scientific leaning can'tsee the name Mount Locke without
thinking of the British empiricist's.
John Locke, who believed that the bestscience was one steeped in observation.
I asked Mrs. Julie MacGyver, who alongwith her husband Scott, still live and
operate the U up and Uud down ranch.

(03:57):
Why her grandmother-in-law, violetwould've simply given away such a
valuable piece of real estate, onethat would be worth millions today.
She said that generation was different.
They believed in giving back.
They were building a greatstate and a great country.
She loved that she could doher part to empower a better

(04:17):
future for Texas and America.
As gifts inspire gifts.
Only five months after Violetgave her mountain to ut the
estate of longtime Fort Davis.
Judge Edwin h. Folks donated the adjoiningmountain known as Little Flattop.
The Folks estate donated a total of 200acres, and that mountain was formerly

(04:38):
named Folks Mountain in his honor.
Sherry Auer, who is the granddaughterin-law of judge folks, said that he
was a civic-minded man and alwaysdid what he thought was best for the
people of Fort Davis and the region.
Three gifts for Texas, anobservatory and two mountains.
These collectively gave us a fourthgift, one of the world's leading

(05:01):
centers of astronomical research.
In fact, these gifts gave us the heavensthemselves as McDonald predicted.
I am WF Strong.
These are stories from Texas.
Some of them are true.