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Chihuahua Desert Nature Center to present program on Davis Mountains Geology
October 28, 2009

At 1.30 p.m. on Saturday, October 31st, the Chihuahuan Desert Nature Center and Research Institute will present a free program on the geology of the Davis Mountains. The talk will have a special focus on their new Interpretive Geology Exhibit, a wood and stone platform constructed on top of Clayton's Overlook a few miles south of Fort Davis. The speaker will be Blaine Hall, who conceived the exhibit.

This high point in the Davis Mountains that offers a 360-degree panoramic view that includes Mitre Peak, Glass Mountain and more. "It's a 360-degree panorama broken up into eight different views," said Hall, an institute board member and lecturer in mathematics and geology at Sul Ross State University. "It has eight views on eight display panels."

Dr. Cathryn Hoyt, executive director of the institute, said that Hall conceived the project after attending Geology Society of America meetings and seeing only virtual geological sites. "One of the reasons we came up with this exhibit is we have the perfect location," she said. "It is real, not virtual."

With the support of board members like Clayton Williams – for whom Clayton's Overlook is named – and his wife Modesta, several Midland foundations, associations like the Independent Petroleum Association of America, and many individual donors, over $100,000 was raised for its construction.

Hoyt told us, "The beauty of the site is its location and the difficulty of the site is its location. It's not accessible by vehicle, so we had to find stonemasons who didn’t mind climbing that height and bringing 28,000 pounds of mortar to the top, not to mention tons and tons of rock."

She continued, “This exhibit takes the approach of  'Here is what you see – beautiful scenery.' And then says, 'This is what the geologist sees – the different textures and colors of the rocks, their different shapes.' We want to get people to question why – why those rocks are there, how did they come to be, who they're this shape, why there's a valley. We want people to not only say, 'This is beautiful scenery,' but as they're driving to Fort Davis or the park, say 'This is like what we just saw.' It's lifelong learning, it's the process of getting people to look around and question things." The more a person learns about the landscape around them, the deeper the appreciation for the landscape.

Hoyt noted, "We realized earth science education in Texas just doesn't exist anymore. The last time you have earth science is in fifth grade. In a state where so much of our education is funded by our natural resources, to say earth science is irrelevant is unusual. But now we're putting earth science requirements back into place." For those unable to climb to Clayton's Overlook or to travel to the site, Hall said provisions are being made to have an animated version of the interactive exhibit displayed at the institute's visitor center and, eventually, online.

The Chihuahua Desert Nature Center presents four presentations a year at the Sibley Nature Center, and the two organizations work together on other programs throughout West Texas. Sibley staff also presents programs at the Chihuahuan Desert Nature Center, as well.

While attending the presentation, visitors will be encouraged to examine the displays on Triassic and Cretaceous fossils of the Llano Estacado, including the huge phytosaur skull on display, with superb drawings of Triassic creatures done by Sibley staff member Michael Nickell. (This column was developed from a story done by the Midland Reporter Telegram’s Oil Editor Mella McEwen published in April, 2007.)