The huge amount of land that Bezos bought in West Texas is starting to get more attention. I first heard about it from my parents... this is all happening about 100 miles from where I grew up so it's in the local papers a lot.
http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/ap_bezos_spaceport_050315.html
It's funny that a tiny town that is basically a truck stop on I-10 from El Paso to San Antonio is where Bezos is spending a lot of money. I used to always buy gas there on road trips. I drove around the entire town once looking for a gas station that would take my gas card. Given my personal experience, I am willing to say that whatever mental image you have of Van Horn is probably pretty close to the truth.
I associate Van Horn with another miniscule place on the same strech of I-10 called Alpine. Alpine recently got national attention for a professor at a local school who said "... this area of Texas more generally, is the proud home of some of the dumbest clods on the planet."
http://colorado.indymedia.org/newswire/display/7568/index.php
IIRC there was a daily show clip segment about the professor and the town reaction to him.
I wonder what made Bezos decide on that exact area. A lot of interesting flight testing/NASA stuff is happening at White Sands and Los Alamos a few hundred miles away (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Sands_Missile_Range)... maybe that has something to do with it.
