Heritage, Volume 5, Number 1, Spring 1987 Page: 39

mented the site. The difficulties in interpreting
deteriorated pictographs are apparent
in his unpublished discussion of
the remnant figures. Relying upon Jackson's
sketches, the large animal is seen as a
possible javelina, whereas in Kirkland's
copy it clearly is bovid, a bison or cow.
Greer also suggests that the number five is
of some importance in historical aboriginal
art, citing the stick figures enclosed
in the rectangular outline. Once again,
Kirkland's watercolor shows seven, and
perhaps eight, people in the box.
Tom Meador wrote a lengthy, detailed
account of the history of Castle Canyon
for Texas Caver magazine in 1966. Visiting
the site to verify his story, he could
find no trace of the figures he knew from
Jackson's description, He too apparently
had not seen Kirkland's copies. In 1968,
Amistad Dam was closed, Castle Canyon
was inundated, and the pictographs undoubtedly
dissolved, a victim of years of
abuse dispatched in the name of progress.
The second site, Missionary Shelter,
stands in mute testimony to the destruction
that can be wrought by the forces of
nature. Off the beaten track, in a short
entrenched tributary to the Rio Grande,
this privately owned pictograph was not
exposed to the same vandalism as Castle
Canyon. The vivid scene remained in
relative obscurity until the 1930s, when
both pioneers in Texas rock art studies,
A. T. Jackson and Forrest Kirkland, produced
copies. Jackson commented that at
that time the paint was so bright it could
be seen for several hundred yards across
the canyon.
The central figure displays a symbolic
duality not often seen in Lower Pecos pictographs.
This character is either a mission
made human by the addition of a
head and arms or a priest whose body is a
church building, complete with towers
and crosses. A long lance penetrating his
body prompted Newcomb to comment
that this "figure visualizes what Lipans
and Mescaleros often wanted to do and
occasionally did do to missionaries" and
that the painting commemorated an actual
event. Kirkland included this panel
among those he thought verged on true
pictographic writing, a design that told
a story.
The graceful horse is painted in the
Plains Indian tradition, causing Jackson
to attribute it to Kiowa or Comanche artists.
The handprints above, the frontal
posture, and the protruding ears of the

0
I
p

Pressa Canyon in Seminole Canyon Park. This is typical of the surfaces used by the Indians for painting
scenes on the canyon walls. The photo was taken during a drought in 1980, and vegetation is scarce.

missionary are characteristic of a lateprehistoric
art form called the Red Monochrome
style. A possible import from the
Plains late in prehistory, it suggests that
the pictograph is the expression of new
experiences within the framework of an
established tradition.
Efforts to relocate the site in 1965 and
1966, during the preimpoundment studies,
were futile even though its general location
was known from Kirkland's and
Jackson's descriptions. Missionary Shelter
was included in a National Register of
Historic Places District in 1971 based on
the prior documentation. In 1985 the
University of Texas surveyors succeeded
in pinpointing the site. All that remains
of this once vivid scene are the shadow of
the handprints and crosses. The missionary
and the horse are gone without a
trace. Nearby ranchers affirm that the site
was completely eradicated by the flood of
1954, the most massive in the 10,000year
history of the Pecos River.
If such effects can be documented
for the short period since first contact
between the Amerind and the EuroAmerican,
what can the toll have been
over the thousands of years since the first
pictographs were painted in this region?
The University of Texas, under grants
from the Robert J. and Helen C. Kleberg
Foundation of San Antonio and the
Joseph H. Thompson Fund of Cleveland,
Ohio, later matched by the National Register
of Historic Places, has since 1982
been searching for as yet undocumented
rock art sites. When the study of the pic

tographs in Seminole Canyon Historic
Park began in 1980, 117 sites were known
in Val Verde County alone. Now, there
are 170. The majority of the known sites,
not inundated by the reservoir, have been
revisited and their current state compared
to past records. Several pictographs in
Terrell, Edwards, and Real counties have
been recorded. These counties have not
received the attention paid to Val Verde
County and undoubtedly require a more
systematic and widespread survey. The
extent of the rock art south of the Rio
Grande remains a mystery, although several
sites described between 1930 and
1970 are now gone. A safe estimate is
that as many sites await recording as have
been found and that many more have
been lost than are known today. In addition
to a search for these sites, moredetailed
and accurate recording of many
of the panels is warranted. Artistic renditions
similar to Kirkland's watercolor
copies are needed at sites so faded that
photography cannot fully capture the images.
More sophisticated techniques,
such as videotape and laser-disc storage,
should be experimentally used. No means
of preserving the pictographs have been
developed, and the prospects for the future
are dim. The current record, like
Jackson's and Kirkland's renditions of
Castle Canyon and Missionary Shelter,
may be all that remains for future generations
to admire.
Solveig A. Turpin is Associate Director of the
Texas Archeological Research Laboratory of the
University of Texas at Austin.

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