An exploration into the past

From the Coastal Plain to the High Desert
July 13-14, 2014

CARLSBAD CAVERNS AND HUECO TANKS

           My journey to explore the lands where the Pueblo people developed their culture began on July 13, 2013. I started in Houston, the most important urban center of the Texas Coastal Plain. The city is situated next to Galveston Bay, a large coastal estuary-lagoon, a few miles from the ocean. Its altitude is around 50 feet above sea level. It is hot, humid and rainy. The day I left it stormed and the temperature reached 98 degrees Fahrenheit.  After stopping in the town of Fort Stockton, where a giant roadrunner welcomes the visitors, on July 14 I visited the Texas Mountains and Basins region.

 Figure 1 - Location of Carlsbad Caverns

          Mi first destination was the area of the Rockies situated within Texas, in the region of the Mountains and Basins, bordering the end of the southern plains. This area is the high desert. It is so desolate that the Spaniards called it “el gran despoblado” (The great desolate). It used to be a vast flat ocean of “chaparral”.  Now it is dotted with oil field activities.  Getting there was an important ecological experience, where it is easy to observe the subtle changes in the landscape that occur travelling west, as the gentle rise in altitude takes place.  The climate changes from humid to semi-arid to desert. The altitude rises from sea level to 5,000 feet at the base of the mountains.  The vegetation changes as it gets dense and plants get smaller. The air gets dryer.

      Three specific sites were of interest to me:  Carlsbad Caverns, the Guadalupe Mountains and Hueco Tanks.  The first one is located in New Mexico, a few miles from the Texas border, north of the city of Pecos. The other two are on the way to the city of El Paso.  All three are geographic accidents of the fringe area between the Rockies and the plains.

CARLSBAD CAVERNS:

Figure 2 - 3D representation of the main caves

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvxOy-6BWrs

Figure 3 - Natural entrance

Figure 4 - Entrance to the park

Figure 5 - Giant stalagmites

Figure 6 - Ceiling covered with stalactites

THE GUADALUPE MOUNTAINS - The Texas Rockies:

      The Guadalupe Mountains are a good example of an ancient marine fossil reef.  The fossils of sea creatures, their shells and surrounding oceanic environment can be found at altitudes over 8,000 feet high.  The sea bottom, as the water evaporated, became buried by  sediments.  Millions of years ago, these sedimentary rocks were uplifted more than a mile high. Geologists and paleontologists come from all over the world to see it and explore it.  El Capitan rises to 8,085 in front of the present floor level of the plains at nearly 5,000 feet.  Behind it rises the highest peak in Texas, the Guadalupe Peak, at 8,749 feet above the sea level.

Figure 7 - Entrance to the Guadalupe Mountains Park.
In the background, El Capitan peak, the highest point in Texas

HUECO TANKS:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huDs6gGOVZY

Figure 8 - Location of Hueco Tanks

Fig. 9 - Map of the park

 



          Near the northwestern tip of the Texas Trans-Pecos, some 30 miles east of El Paso,four massive hills of jumbled boulders rise above the desert floor. No doubt this prominent and oddly compelling landmark has had many different names through time. Today it is known as Hueco Tanks. Characterized as an island in the desert, a natural oasis, a spiritual sanctuary, the site has meant many things to many people.

       

Figure 10 - Entrance to the site

     For thousands of years, Native peoples camped here among the hills, drawing on the site's diverse plant and animal resources. Some stayed longer than others, finding a way to eke out a  living in the arid Chihuahuan desert. Roughly 900 years ago, people of the Jornada Mogollon culture built a small village and grew corn and other crops in the soils that accumulated at the base of the rocks.

Figure 11 - Exploring a cave entrance

Figure 12 - A pictograph of the colonial times.
The Spaniards brought the horses

Figure 13 - A tank in open air

        What attracted people to this place through time was the critical resource needed for sustaining life on the desert—water. The huge red rocks and boulders are cracked and pocked with fissures and holes—huecos—that trap and hold rainwater for months at a time. The location of these natural tanks was known and, in some cases, marked with special symbols and inscriptions on the rocks.Hundreds of paintings—from large panels to small mask-like faces—adorn the canyon walls, overhangs, ceilings of shelters, and small, hard to find places at the site.

Key words: Texas 4th-7th grade Social Studies, Native American tribes, habitat and lifezones, cultural adaptation, Anazasi, Ancestral Pueblo, Rio Grande cultures, New Mexico and Colorado tribes, Paleo-Indians, Archaic and Classic Indians of the Southwest, Geography of the Rio Grande, Mesa Verde, Chaco, Taos, Acoma, Indian ruins, archaeological artifacts, teacher resources, Fund for Teachers, Texas.