The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 29, July 1925 - April, 1926 Page: 52
330 p. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
river has worn back under the cliff until the summit seems to
hang out over the bed. By a circuitous path from the top the
adventurer descends under this overhanging ledge of rock and
walks along the face of the limestone cliff still at a great distance
above the water. Here, as the river makes a slight curve there is
a corresponding change in the contour of the rock. Several
strata of the harder limestone in the bluff have defied erosion and
jut out in a sort of beak. It is not difficult for one ascending the
Brazos valley to guess how the cliff got its name. The rock really
has a certain Semitic prominence. "Solomon's Nose" it is to this
day, a sort of landmark for all the country round. The name has
been applied not alone to the rocky feature under the cliff but to
the whole mountain.
The view from the top of the bluff is one not soon to be for-
gotten. Here, more than anywhere else one breathes the air into
his lungs and the colors into his soul and murmurs, "So this is
TEXAS !" Sometimes on still fine days, army planes on the way
from San Antonio to Dallas or back again zoon by overhead. Up
the river are the green peaceful farms of the bend, and the little
town of Kimball, and far away, so far indeed that the eye must
know exactly the right spot to watch, Comanche Peak rises above
the horizon with a ghost-like faintness. There are nearer ridges,
the "Twin sisters," right across the road, for instance, on whose
mesa tops buzzards build their nests. Below Solomon's Nose an-
other green valley rests. In this direction the smoke plumes of
puffing Santa F' engines wave occasionally. As a back-drop there
are more hills of Scotch ruggedness, bare and rocky and covered
with scraggly cedars, cactus and the brightest yellow and red flow-
ers that spring-time can conjure out of the limestone. The valley
has its pastures (most of it is ranch land) with here and there
farm patches enclosed with barbed wire. There yet remains, how-
ever, reminders of earlier years, an old log farm house, a broken
line of rock fence, a bois de are hedge.
Along the river, just below Solomon's Nose, there is a fine
spring. The water gushes out and goes tumbling away in the
Brazos. For the last seventy years or so there has been the con-
stant pumping of a hydraulic ram, placed there in the early days
by Jacob de Cordova. In 1857, James Frazier built a log spring-
house over this spring. The house stands until this day as it
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 29, July 1925 - April, 1926, periodical, 1926; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117141/m1/60/?rotate=90: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.