The Painted Rocks on a bluff along the Concho River outside of the village of Paint Rock is one of the most unique concentrations of more than 1,500 native pictographs in North America.
Among the most unusual art at the site are nearly 20 solar markers indicating important dates with light and shadows. The winter solstice markers tend to be more dramatic, with daggers of sunlight striking the center of certain panels at solar noon.
The Native American art at Paint Rock goes back more than 2,000 years, to even before the Jumano people, who are credited with creating most of the drawings, were a dominant tribe in what is now Texas. From their base settlement near present-day Presidio, the Jumano traded with the pueblos of New Mexico and the Caddo villages of East Texas.
On the river 33 miles east of San Angelo, the Jumano established a semipermanent village. Whether they used the Painted Rocks site solely as a ceremonial site or as a campsite is not known.
The pictographs are spread out over a half-mile on a 70-foot bluff made of layers of limestone shelves. The valley, just a few hundred yards wide, is flat with plenty of grass and trees surrounded by rugged brush country.
By 1780 the Jumano were integrated with the Apache, who were replaced by the Comanche who used the location. In 1886 Dunlap Sims owned the pictograph site. Since then the Sims/Campbell family has jealously guarded the historic art and judiciously opened it to visitors.
For many years Kay Campbell, 96, Sims’ granddaughter and a retired teacher, led tours of the site. She discovered the first solar markers in the 1980s. Now her son, Bill Campbell, 71, keeps the tradition alive.
Painted Rocks tours are available Saturdays at 10am. For information, go to thepaintedrocks.org. To make a reservation, text Bill at 325/456-0072.
1,684th in a series. Everywhere is a day trip from somewhere: Follow “Day Trips & Beyond,” a travel blog, at austinchronicle.com/daily/travel.
This article appears in January 5 • 2024.
