Essays

Moseying: History of the Southern Llano Estacado

The pictographs of Paint Rock
January 1, 2003

Sixty-five people stood in a circle around a flute player, raptly listening and watching a shaft of light (or sun dagger) slowly creep across a pictograph until it reached the center of the design. The thousand-year old pictograph was part of an astronomical calendar devised by Jumano Indians. The pictograph is of a shield, with five lobes outside of either side of the lower point of the shield. In the center of a dark space within the shield is a star, and the sun dagger’s light reached the center of the star at 12.37 p.m., December 2002, the exact midday point of the winter solstice.

More pictographs mark the summer solstice, the equinoxes, and even the cross-quarters, half-way between the solstices and equinoxes. Other pictographs depict the burning of the San Saba mission, a depiction of the Plumed Serpent, the capture of prisoners, the “signature” of one of Quanah Parker’s contemporaries, a vaquero on horseback and much, much more.

Kay and Fred Campbell’s Jinglebob Ranch is listed as one of the top one hundred destinations on the Texas State Tourism Board’s website. Over 1500 pictographs line a quarter-mile long cliff a hundred yards north of the Concho River. The small town of Paint Rock is visible from atop the bluff, just a mile away and on the other side of the river. Visitors must call the Campbells for an appointment (915-732-4376), and pay six dollars a person.

Several thousand people visit each year. For school groups Kay Campbell will show a stone paint pot found at the site, and allow children to grind their own paint with materials the Campbells have found at a site in the Callahan Divide near Abilene. More information is available from other sources.

On the Internet is a virtual field trip to the pictographs, created by the Texas Education Agency. The Midland County Library has a book written by Forrest Kirkland and his wife, with their artistic renditions made in the 1930’s of many of the pictographs. The Texas Archaeology Society spent two Christmas vacations recording all of the artwork. Dr. R. Robert Robbins of the University of Texas Astronomy Department has written a scholarly paper on its archaeoastronomy. In a 1920’s Texas Folklore Society yearbook is an article about the site published by Judge O.L. Sims.

The audience gathered in commemoration were a varied lot; a fourth were members and friends of the extended Campbell and Sims family, another third were members of regional archaeological societies, and the rest were people that merely wished to witness the occurrence. Among this group was a Baptist preacher and a group of neo-pagans.

I had been urged to attend by Peggy and Joe Maddox, ranching friends who are long-term practitioners of the Holistic Resource Management (HRM) system founded by Allan Savory. Ranching techniques within the HRM system are based on knowledge of ecological principles. Over the years they have introduced me to Savory, Howard Garrett, and Malcolm Beck, well-known “earth-friendly” agricultural teachers and writers. For many in the ranching and farming industries, the beliefs of these men are thought to be “New Age.”

As Bill Yeates, president of the Concho Valley Archaeological Society stated well before the light of the sun dagger reached the shield , “There is so much knowledge lost. We do not know very much at all about “rock art.” We all attempt to interpret what we see. The Campbells have invited Comanche Indians to the site, hoping to learn their interpretations. Everybody that comes here, comes with their own perspective – and we are all here to learn as well as to admire, and to honor the long-gone tribesmen that created this wonderful display.”

The flute player (and I apologize for not asking him his name) played a flute of his own design made in the model of native American flutes. He told me he listened to the recordings of R. Carlos Nakai and many other native American flute players, but that he played his own songs – “songs from my heart.” His ethereal music set into place a contemplative atmosphere.

The music acted to enable each individual to enter into an intuitive and meditative frame of mind, and as a result, I believe that many of the people present entered into an interactive emotional relationship with the art. I know I felt the playfulness within a pictograph of a roadrunner chasing a bug, and could feel the alert wariness within a turkey pictograph. It might be stretching it just a bit, but a case could be made that for all it was a communal spiritual experience, no matter what their beliefs might have been. When the flute player finished at 12.45 p.m. all those present applauded as one.

The applause was not only for the flute player, but also for the Campbells and their efforts in preserving the site. As the celebrants left, an air of peace accompanied their quiet departure. Their expressions were similar to those leaving the doors of a church after services are over.

Related Essay: The Pictographs of Paint Rock Revisited