Thomas Alex. Staff photo by Sam Karas

Thomas Alex, a Terlingua resident and former Big Bend National Park archaeologist, applies a special cleaner before power washing away graffiti from the1936 Milton Faver state historical marker in Shafter. A handful of Shafter residents gathered with him last Thursday to help Alex erase the word “colonizer” spray painted on the granite by vandals in January of last year.  Staff photo by Sam Karas.