Proud of Marfa
Growing up in Texas, Amber Venz Box was a huge fan of the TV show “Gossip Girl.” She was one of the thousands of fans who tuned in weekly during the show’s run in the 2000s to check out the teen drama set in New York.
But Venz Box said it was another character on the show that kept stealing her attention. “On the wall in the home of Serena Vanderwood, one of the characters, was a sign that said Proud of Marfa. And it was in every episode,” Venz Box said. “And I remember looking up “What’s Proud of Marfa?” and finding out that it was this super artsy town in far west Texas. And the more I knew about it, the more I noticed people talking about it and it being relevant culturally.”
Venz Box didn’t know it then, but that seemingly insignificant sign would become the inspiration behind The Local Chapter, a private retreat in western Texas that she and her fellow entrepreneur husband, Baxter, created for the design-minded adventurer.
“I had always wanted to go to this art town, and in 2013 we finally went,” said Venz Box, who co-created RewardStyle.com with her husband. “And so the deal was, we’d go to Marfa, but we couldn’t leave until we found a way to monetize Instagram. And, we actually did. We created what, today, is the LikeToKnowIt shopping app. We created that when we were out there, and we just kept going back to the area. By 2016, we decided that we’d really love to have a place out there.”
Three years later, the Boxes opened the doors to The Local Chapter. It’s situated on 392 acres of private land near the western boundary of Big Bend National Park. The essential concept was to create a space for visitors to not only get away from the rat race of big city life, but to be able to open their minds and let the atmosphere and scenery inspire them.
“It’s wide open, it’s clean and it’s all super comfortable and plush,” Venz Box said. “There’s truly nothing more than exactly what you need, but everything that you need is there for you. So, you can really lie in bed and just have your mind be so clear, and there’s that kind of freedom to whether you want to look through the dome and just stare at the sky or the stars at night or the 360-degree view. There are windows totally around the circumference, and so you can see out to all sides.”
One of the aspects of The Local Chapter that makes it stand out from other country retreats is the use of yurts, which is a portable round tent that was used by nomadic tribes in central Asia. However, the three yurts located at The Local Chapter property are a few steps beyond what the original concept began as. “Our thought was that it would be something that was very low footprint, and we really wanted to just get something out there, I would say, quickly,” Venz Box said. “We, perhaps, misunderstood the simplicity of a yurt. The way that we built these yurts is truly like homes, with nice designer flooring and full bathrooms with showers. They’re pier and beam, they’ve been fully painted inside, so they’re all white. It’s not your typical yurt inside, but we took a lot of care to make them just like a home.” Each yurt has electricity, running water and all the conveniences you would expect from first-class lodging. The yurts are spaced out across a high mesa, which offers the feel of seclusion and privacy that many are looking to dive into.
“From the yurt, you can actually see the Texas-Mexico border at the St. Elena Canyon,” Venz Box said. “And so people don’t realize that there are two national parks that meet at the international border, and they’re both absolutely gorgeous. You can actually see that border from staying at our yurts.” Reservations for The Local Chapter can be made at the Localchapter.com. While it can also be found on home-sharing sites like Airbnb, Venz Box said what the Local Chapter offers is unlike anything that prospective guests will find elsewhere.
“It is one of the only places that I’ve ever been where you truly unwind. What I mean by that is, there is not someone serving you cocktails while you sit at the beach,” Venz Box said. “It’s not that kind of unwind. It’s a place where it is a forced unplug because the views are so incredibly beautiful and they’re totally private views. So you have what feels like your own private view of the entire national park and you can truly achieve tranquility.”
photos: Reed Kenney