The Sun Set On The Sunset Motel

Monahans, Texas is the self-proclaimed "Oasis of the West Texas Desert" according to the official website of this small West Texas town, between Odessa and El Paso. Oasis may take it over the top, but due to the oil and gas boom, the town in the middle of nowhere is actually thriving. To rent a home in a trailer park, you will be paying as much as for a closet apartment in New York City. Big hotel chains are moving in, but Roger Miller may be out of fashion: "two hours of pushing broom, buys an eight by 12 four-bit room."
But the boom didn't come early enough, the Sunset Motel is a casualty and only a decaying rusting sign being a reminder that old US Route 80 once ran through the "oasis". By now the stretch through town is called Business Loop I-20 or simply Sealy Avenue. Calling it a loop is kinda funny, as I-20 is looping around Monahans to the south.

By the end of 1992, the motel was still open for business, even Hollywood thought of it as a fine location and used it in the movie "Flesh & Bone" with Dennis Quaid, Meg Ryan, James Caan, and Gwyneth Paltrow. IMDb knows that the hotel was then "owned and operated by Doris Barker. Daughter Jeanie Barker Scott's stepdaughter got a walk-on role when a young actress called in sick."


The most famous son coming out of Monahans is probably singer/songwriter Guy Clark who earlier this year (May 17, 2016) passed away 75 years old. His grandma used to own a motel and his "Desperados Waiting For A Train" is an ode to drifter Jack, who was also his grandma's boyfriend.

I need to go back and stay there for a couple of days and let that West Texas feeling sink in and shot some more - just driving through the oasis didn't cut it.



My photography is available through Dispatch Press Images for publication, or through me for personal use.
Sources: IMDb.com; YouTube, http://www.cityofmonahans.org/, DPI

Updated 12/2020 - replaced two dead video links