Texas Almanac, 1966-1967 Page: 13
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TOLBERT'S TEXAS 13
TEXAS, AS '-r K TO BERT
Many of Texas' most interesting attrac- some dunes 100 feet high. These are best
tions are colorfully described by Frank Tol- displayed at the Sandhills State Park near
bert of The Dallas News in the following sum- Monahans, just west of Odessa on Inter-
mary. His trips throughout the state are the state 10.
foundation for this material, as they are for TRANS-PECOS TEXAS: Beyond the Pecos
his columns, articles and books. Tolbert's de- River, still near the New Mexican boundary,
scription is followed by more detailed infor- are Texas' highest mountains, the Guadalupes
nation about Texas' recreational, scenic and of Culberson County. From the highway, the
historical sites. (See also special historic Guadalupes are very handsome in a bleak
pages devoted to many early cities and coun- way. You have to go into the great canyons,
ties of Texas. Also, consult index for other such as well-watered McKittrick on the J. C.
page references to many items contained in Hunter Ranch, to appreciate fully this range
the following summary.) which has heavy stands of Ponderosa pine
THE PANHANDLE: Some of Texas' most and other tall trees on its high ridges. The
spectacular wildernesses are along the bor- creek in McKittrick Canyon is stocked with
ders of this province. This is true particularly mountain trout and a herd of about 500 elk
in the western reaches. In the Texas Pan- roams the area.
handle are the ruins of Indian pueblos built The capital of the Trans-Pecos highland
as early as 900 A.D. and stone wall re- country is El Paso. This westernmost Texas
minders of Spanish plazas of uncertain an- city has a metropolitan population of more
tiquity. These plazas and some of the pueblos than 600,000, including its sister city just
were on the South Canadian River in Oldham across the Rio Grande (and in some cases
County, west of Amarillo. There are still now on this side of the Great River), Ciudad
some stone foundations and some rock walls, Juarez, most populous Mexican community
as high as 7 feet, at such 19th century Old- on the U.S. border. In the El Paso city
ham County communities as Tecolote (The limits are homes at altitudes from 3.500 to
Plaza of the Owl), and Plazas of Romero 7,100 feet, and the sunny climate is com-
and Trujillo. parable to that of Phoenix and Tucson in
Old Tascosa, also in Oldham, once was Arizona.
the cowboy capital of the Panhandle and one The last international streetcar line on
of the wilder towns of the Old West. It is the the U.S.-Mexican border connects El Paso
site of Boot Hill Cemetery, where cowboys and Juarez. A cable car carries passengers
who died "with their boots on" were buried, up into the mountains above El Paso. Except
North of Amarillo, on the Canadian, some for San Antonio, El Paso has more ancient
of the biggest of the pueblos were "housing Spanish missions than any other Texas city,
projects" for the Alibates Dolomite flint and there is a handsome 16th century cathe-
mine, the biggest flint mine west of the Mis- dral in Juarez. About 100 miles of gorgeous
sissippi. The 3-square-mile deposit of beauti- mountain and desert country extend down
fully colored flint was as important as a the Rio Grande from El Paso, in Hudspeth
complex of steel mills would be today, as the and Presidio Counties, some of it inaccessible
Alibates Mine and its pueblos supplied flint except by 4-wheel-drive vehicles. In good
for weapons for the stone-age Indians. A bill weather, hardy travelers can get within about
introduced in 1965 would make the quarry a four miles by stock car and (after securing
national monument. the ranch owner's permission) hike the rest
Alibates (the name comes from a creek of the way up the Capote Rim to Capote
titled in honor of an old cowboy or squatter Falls, a drop of about 180 feet and the biggest
on the Bivins Ranch, Allen Bates) flint points waterfall in the state. Below the falls there
have been found in the remains of extinct is a "painted desert" of brilliant and chang-
creatures, such as mastodons and gigantic ing colors. To reach Capote, come up the
boars, suggesting that men were in the Pan- river from Presidio and ask directions at
handle working the mines 15,000 years ago, Candelaria, a dead-end village on the river
or more. in Presidio County.
Tourists moving along through the flat Falcon Dam on the Rio Grande is a
pasturelands and wheat fields of Highway 66, favorite recreational area for citizens of
which courses through the midriff of the Pan- the United States and Mexico.
handle, will enjoy seeing one of the deepest
and most beautiful canyons in the West, Palo , .
Duro or "hard wood," just south of Amarillo.
It is from 3,500 to 3,750 feet from the rim
to the deepest part of this great, yawning,
watermelon-red, pink, green, mauve, buff and ~
yellow chasm. It is 2,380 feet above sea level
on the floor of the canyon, where Palo Duro
Creek flows over colored rocks, and where
there are tall junipers or cedars, hackberry
and wild china. This was a favorite winter-
ing place for the Comanches and their allies,
the Kiowas, and, later, the Cheyennes.
In Hansford County is the site of Zulu
Stockade, just north of the Canadian River,
which was the first post office in that sec- j -. -
tion. British buffalo hunters named it in 1872 ,~ - '~' -" ,~
because it resembled stockades built to keep-
out African Zulus.
One of the nation's best museums of the
Old West is the Panhandle-Plains Historical
Society's institution on the campus of West
Texas State College at Canyon.
Where the Texas-New Mexico border
bends westward after having headed due
south for miles are ranges of sandhills, with
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Texas Almanac, 1966-1967, book, 1965; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth113808/m1/15/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.