Day Trips
Appreciating the Indian rock art of the Lower Pecos River region
By Gerald E. McLeod, Fri., Oct. 15, 2004
The Indian rock art of the Lower Pecos River region west of Del Rio contains the oldest and most diverse pictographs in the New World. Over several centuries the residents of the northern corner of the Chihuahua Desert painted the cave walls with images whose meaning is now largely lost.
More than 2,000 archaeological sites have been documented in Southwest Texas, with a large concentration in the canyons between the Devils and Pecos rivers. "Man came here about the time that the mastodons were beginning to disappear," said Gary Kendrick of Austin at the beginning of a tour of the rock paintings in Fate Bell Cave in Seminole Canyon State Park, 10 miles west of Comstock.
We know very little about the Pecos River Archaic Indians even though their art is still amazingly abundant. The entire nomadic tribe probably never numbered more than a few hundred individuals at one time, even though they had cultural similarities with other Archaic people from as far away as Utah. By the time the Spanish explorers reached the area, the tribe had begun disappearing, Kendrick says.
Grouped in small family units, the Indians survived on hunting, fishing, and utilizing a wide variety of plants. With starvation never far from reality, it is no wonder that the Pecos people turned to spiritual help in dealing with natural events. The paintings are believed to be stories or instructions for passing through portals to other worlds.
"A lot in the art, we don't know what it means," Kendrick says. "We just make educated guesses." Even W.W. Newcomb Jr., who coined the word "shaman" for the central figure in the paintings, wrote in The Rock Art of Texas Indians (University of Texas Press), "Just what these anthropomorphic beings represent is open to several interpretations."
Getting to Fate Bell Cave involves a long, steep descent to the bottom of Seminole Canyon. The cave is more of a large gash on the canyon wall measuring 150 yards long and 40 yards deep. At one time the limestone ceiling was probably covered in pictures. To reach the ledge more than 20 feet overhead, the artists would have had to use ladders or scaffolding. Add making the paint to that, and you have artwork that was not done on a whim.
Without a guide along, it is difficult to see all of the intricacies of the wall paintings. Kendrick explained that dust kicked up by centuries of visitors has obscured the faintest drawings and muted the colors.
It is remarkable that centuries after the red, black, orange, and yellow figures were drawn any of them survive at all. It makes the visitors wonder what images may have been lost forever. More important, what are the meanings of the flying figures and squiggly lines?
"All these things meant something very deep to these people," Kendrick says. "The art was a representation of their world."
West of the state park at the Rock Art Foundation's Galloway White Shaman Preserve is another Archaic mural, in a small rock shelter overlooking the U.S. 90 bridge over the deep Pecos River Canyon. The hike down the narrow canyon to the site is shorter but much more rugged than the hike in the state park.
One of the most famous rock shelter paintings of the Lower Pecos region, its colors are much more vibrant with more detail. Kendrick theorizes that the drawings were instructions on the five steps of a spiritual journey. Standing in front of the painting is like reaching back in time, and all we can do is imagine what life could have been like 6,000 years ago.
Tours of Fate Bell Cave are offered from Seminole Canyon State Park headquarters every Wednesday through Sunday at 10am and 3pm, and they take about one hour and 30 minutes. Once a month, the park also offers all-day hikes to sites in Presa Canyon. For more information, call 432/292-4464 or visit the park's Web site at www.tpwd.state.tx.us.
The Rock Art Foundation of San Antonio has been preserving sites and educating Texans about these valuable treasures since 1991. Volunteers offer two-hour tours of the White Shaman Shelter every Saturday at noon. The weekend after Thanksgiving, the White Shaman Preserve will be open for tours on Friday and Saturday at 10am, 12:30pm, and 3pm. For more information, call 888/762-5278 or check out the history of rock art in Texas and special tours at their Web site, www.rockart.org.
696th in a series. Day Trips, Vol. 2, a book of Day Trips 101-200, is available for $8.95, plus $3.05 for shipping, handling, and tax. Mail to: Day Trips, PO Box 33284, South Austin, TX 78704.
