Heritage, Volume 3, Number 4, Spring 1986 Page: 30

tropical felines, the Jaguarundi and
ocelot, still find refuge.
North of the Brush Country, the rolling
terrain gives way to the Balcones
Escarpment, southern edge of the
Edwards Plateau. Comprising about
24 million acres, the plateau is rocky,
rugged and dominated by cedar and
oak. The region's most significant
characteristic, the immense subterranean
reservoir known as the Edwards
Aquifer flows through honey-combed
limestone and spills out in beautiful
springs and grott-like canyons.
Above the Edwards Plateau is the 44
million acre Texas Panhandle, western
edge of the Great Plains. There
are two distinct natural regions in the
Panhandle, the High Plains, and the
Rolling Plains. The Rolling Plains
were once pristine tallgrass prairie;
the High Plains were arid and had a
mixture of grass. Today, both are all
but gone.
The Trans-Pecos, in far west Texas, is
our only mountain region. Three
mountain ranges, in fact, emerge
from the Chiluahuan Desert to form
the State's most unique natural area,
both botanical and geologically. Of
the nearly 1700 species of plants and
animals considered unique in Texas,
fully one-fourth are native to the 19
million acres which lie beyond the
Pecos River.
Because of its size, geographic position,
natural features and the widely
varying climates and environments it
encompasses, Texas possesses the
richest natural heritage of any state
in the union. Among its bountiful
natural assets are 5000 species of vascular
plants including 2000 different
wildflowers, 550 species of birds,
mountains, deserts, prairies, marshes
and forests, and some of the largest
barrier islands in the world.
The preservation of this magnificent
array. . . this natural diversity, is the
purpose of the Texas Nature Conservancy,
state chapter of the 300,000
member national organization based
in Arlington, Virginia. Employing
the resources and initiative of the
private sector, the Conservancy has
taken the lead in preserving Texas'
rich natural heritage and protected
nearly 200,000 acres of our State's
most unique and significant lands
since 1979.
The Conservancy's agenda is clearly
defined and does not seek to preserve
the whole landscape but concentrates
on selecting, with the greatest
possible precision, jeopardized areas
of the highest ecological value. The
Texas Chapter accomplishes its goals
through three major programs:
Identification is the first step.

Through the efforts of the Texas
Natural Heritage Program, jointly established
by the Conservancy with
Texas' General Land Office, the
rarest and most threatened flora and
fauna of Texas are located with the
aid of a state-of-the-art natural resources
data-base.
Next, the protection of the most
critical sites is negotiated by Conservancy
real estate "brokers" using a
number of tactics, including donation,
lease, contract, or outright purchase.
Although the non-profit organization
frequently assists government
agencies in acquiring natural
areas, the emphasis is distinctly on
the private sector-concerned individuals,
the corporate community
and foundations.
Stewardship is the third element in
the mix. Volunteers and professional
land stewards oversee preserve management,
research and public use for
the Conservancy's natural real estate.
On any given weekend, chapter
members are clearing trails, conducting
tours or even burning off the
land, as nature would have naturally
done at regular intervals long ago.
Most unique remnants of the native
Texas landscape exist only by virtue
of the commitment, and often the
sacrifice of their owners to protect
them. Recently, for example, Texas
Historical Foundation Chairman,
John Middleton, and his family were
inducted by the Texas Nature Conservancy's
President, Mickey Burleson
of Temple, into the Texas Land
Steward's Society. Membership in the
Society is honorary and awarded to
those Texas Families and individuals
whose lands contain the State's most
precious biota.
It is a no-nonsense, efficient, and, in
Texas, cost-effective approach to
land conservation. Through private
action last year, the Conservancy acquired
nearly 90,000 acres at a cost
to its member contributors of approximately
$1 per acre.
In 1984, it enabled the Texas Nature
Conservancy to save a critically
threatened spring fed creek bottom
in the Hill Country, one of the most
valuable waterfowl sanctuaries in
America on the upper Texas Coast,
and a major portion of the San Jacinto
Battlefield.
The Conservancy's programs of identification,
protection and stewardship
are a formula for preservation
that works.
Andrew Sansom is Executive Director
of the Texas Nature Conservancy.

THE LOWER PECOS RIVER INDIAN ART

By
Roberta McGregor
and
Fred Valdez, Jr.
Rockshelters painted thousands of
years ago, woven mats and sandals
dating to 2000 B.C., fragments of
bone and wood, cut and shaped with
stone tools number among thousands
of prehistoric artifacts from the Texas
Lower Pecos. A people who no
longer exist left behind these remnants
of every-day life. Who inhabited
the canyons, rockshelters, and
the always-rugged terrain of southwest
Texas? Where did they go and
why did they leave? What can we say
about their lifeways using only fragments
of information left by material
culture.
The fragments of information remain
as parts of a great puzzle and define
this culture as hunter-gatherers in
the Lower Pecos environment. As we
seek an understanding of the inner
workings of this culture we find that,
like descendants of the ancient
Lower Pecos people, many pieces of
the puzzle are missing, leaving gaps
in the completed picture. So, we
must attempt to fill in the voids
which have existed since early institutional
investigations into the
Lower Pecos.
In 1931 the Witte Museum sent a
small scouting expedition to the
Lower Pecos to investigate prehistoric
sites. One of the members of
the group, Mary Virginia Carson,
sketched a series of the pictographs
at Fate Bell Shelter. In 1933 the
Witte Museum returned to the area
to explore the Shumla Caves near
Langtry. George C. Martin headed

30

the expedition with John Eross in
charge of excavation. All of the crew
members worked as volunteers and
received no pay. Witte Museum Director
Ellen S. Quillin called upon
citizens of San Antonio to sponsor
the excavation with food and money.
Although this occurred at the height
of the Depression, grocery stores and
individuals gave everything from sardines
to Christmas candy plus $90.00
in cash. The expenses of the crew
for gas, postage stamps, and so on
amounted to $69.00, resulting in a
small profit for the museum.
Excited by the successful excavation
of Shumla the Witte Museum in
1936 returned to the area to excavate
Eagle Cave under the direction of
Jack Davenport. The Southwest
Texas Archaeological Society cosponsored
the project and again the
people of San Antonio came forward
with food and money. Because of
these two very early excavations the
museum possesses perhaps the best
collection of artifacts anywhere from
the Lower Pecos.
The Witte Museum's interest in
Lower Pecos prehistory has led to
several new projects. Funded by the
Witte, the Center for Archaeological
Research at The University of Texas
at San Antonio recently conducted
two excavations at Baker Cave. The
most important data recovered concerns
the food processing methods
and diet practiced by the huntergatherers
in the Lower Pecos. Pertaining
to the latter, the hot and dry
SPRING 86 * HERITAGE