Seminole CanyonInterpretive Guide |
Interpretive Guide of Seminole Canyon State Park & Historic Site (SP&HS) in Texas. Published by Texas Parks & Wildlife.
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INTERPRETIVE GUIDE
SEMINOLE
CANYON
SEMINOLE-NEGRO INDIAN SCOUTS
TO EXPERIENCE THE WONDER OF
SEMINOLE CANYON IS TO STEP FAR
BACK IN TIME TO THE ERA WHEN
DINOSAURS ROAMED ... WHEN ICE
AGE HUNTERS PURSUED BIG GAME
WITH STONE-TIPPED SPEARS ...
STATE PARK AND
HISTORIC SITE
Seminole Canyon received its name in honor of the
U.S. Army’s Seminole-Negro Indian Scouts, garrisoned at
Fort Clark. The scouts protected the West Texas frontier
from marauding Apache and Comanche bands between
1872 and 1914. Known for their exceptional cunning and
toughness, no scout was ever wounded or killed in combat,
and four earned the prestigious Medal of Honor.
Access into Seminole and Presa canyons is restricted to
guided tours. For tour schedules please contact:
Seminole Canyon State Park and Historic Site
P. O. Box 820, Comstock, TX 78837
(432) 292-4464 • www.tpwd.texas.gov/seminolecanyon
WHEN PREHISTORIC ARTISANS
ADORNED
ROCK
SHELTERS
WITH ELABORATE MURAL-SIZED
PAINTINGS . . . WHEN PIONEERS
ATTEMPTED TO TAME THE LAND
WITH RAIL, BARBED WIRE AND
FURTHER READING
Rock Art of the Lower Pecos by Carolyn E. Boyd
The Rock Art of Texas Indians by W.W. Newcomb, Jr.
(paintings by Forrest Kirkland)
Pecos River Rock Art by Jim Zintgraff and Solveig Turpin
WINDMILL. COME. LOOK. LISTEN.
SEMINOLE CANYON HAS MANY
STORIES TO TELL.
© 2019 TPWD. PWD BR P4501-082H (7/19)
In accordance with Texas State Depository Law, this publication is available at
the Texas State Publications Clearinghouse and/or Texas Depository Libraries.
TPWD receives funds from the USFWS. TPWD prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, disability, age, and gender,
pursuant to state and federal law. To request an accommodation or obtain information in an alternative format, please contact TPWD on a Text Telephone
(TTY) at (512) 389-8915 or by Relay Texas at 7-1-1 or (800) 735-2989 or by email at accessibility@tpwd.texas.gov. If you believe you have been discriminated against by TPWD, please contact TPWD, 4200 Smith School Road, Austin, TX 78744, or the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Office for Diversity and
Workforce Management, 5275 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church, VA 22041.
Texas State Parks is a division of the
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
“THE MAKER
OF PEACE” BY
BILL WORRELL
S E M I N O L E
C A N Y O N
S T A T E
P A R K
A N D
H I S T O R I C
S I T E
RAI LROADER S
AND RAN C HER S
THE
MAN BEHIND
A CHANGING
LANDSCAPE
THE
DREAM
Seminole Canyon
is still being created – deepened and
widened year after year. The erosive forces of rain and
flood continue to expose rock deposited up to 100 million
years ago, during the Age of Dinosaurs. Ancient inland
seas repeatedly flooded the landscape and then withdrew,
laying down alternate bands of clay from the land and
lime from the ocean. This process resulted in the layer
cake of rock sequences visible today.
T
Pictographs of the Lower Pecos River Style adorn the canyon.
During the Pleistocene ice age (12,000 – 10,000 years
ago), the region’s temperate climate supported lush
vegetation that included pine, juniper and oak woodlands in the canyons and luxuriant grasslands on the
uplands. Ice Age hunters pursued now-extinct species
of elephant, camel, bison and horse across the plains.
By 7,000 years ago, the ever-drying landscape resembled
that of today. A new culture emerged in this changed
environment. The Archaic people lived in the dry rockshelters that line the canyon walls and subsisted on
many of the same arid-adapted plants and small animal
species that inhabit the park today.
The park’s semiarid landscape represents a mixture of
species from the Edwards Plateau, the Chihuahuan Desert
and the South Texas Plains.
PREHISTORIC ROCK ART
The past inhabitants of Seminole Canyon left their mark
in several ways, most notably through rock paintings
called pictographs. The park contains some of the most
outstanding examples not only in Texas, but in the world.
Extensive pictographs of the Lower Pecos River Style,
attributed to the Middle Archaic period of 4,000 years
ago, adorn rock-shelters throughout its canyons. These
and pictographs from other periods give park visitors a
visual link to the canyon dwellers of the past.
Of course, art supply stores did not exist hundreds or
thousands of years ago. Early artisans obtained everything
they needed from nature – variously colored minerals for
paint pigments, animal fats and urine for binders, shells or
flat rocks for palettes, and fibrous plant leaves for brushes.
The canyon walls themselves served as blank canvas.
Why did the canyons’ past inhabitants produce pictographs?
Scientists do not always agree. Recent research into the
meaning of Lower Pecos River Style murals suggests that
the images may communicate important elements of the
culture’s belief system, such as shamanic journeys to the
land of the dead and a symbolic relationship between deer
and peyote, a hallucinogenic cactus.
he Southern Pacific, the nation’s
second transcontinental railroad
when completed in 1883, crossed
what is now park property. Sections of old
rail bed still line the park’s landscape. The
Southern Pacific served to unite the east and west coasts and
established an important route for commerce and settlement.
Bustling but short-lived tent cities that included facilities
like stores, restaurants, and saloons housed railroad workers
nearby. A large baking oven from one of these sites, constructed of locally-quarried limestone, stands re-constructed
at the park today where it recalls the hard work and sacrifice
of early railroad workers.
With the railroad came a ranching boom. Sheep, goat and
cattle producers could more easily ship livestock to markets,
and the new technology of the day – barbed wire and
windmills – allowed them to fence their ranches and provide
all-important water for stock. Seminole Canyon was part of
the Lower Pecos stock industry from the early 1880s until it
became a state park in 1973. Although livestock no longer
roam within park boundaries, ranching remains a vitally
important activity within the area.
Railroad crew, 1885