Welcome to the Park of the Week Newsletter for November 2, 2023. This week’s park protects rock art painted thousands of years ago.
Seminole Canyon State Park
Location
Comstock, Texas, US
Claim to fame
Pictographs in the Lower Pecos region are spectacular and ancient. Some date back thousands of years, and little is known about the people who created them. Their story is still being discovered; archaeologists are still working to uncover these ancient secrets.
While the exact meaning of the images depicted in the rock art is still being theorized, the paint used to create it is not a mystery. Pigments crushed from local rocks, animal fat, soap beaten from the roots of the areas yuccas, and a little water was all it took to create artwork that would last in this dry place for thousands of years. These artists were clearly masters of their environment.
Reason to visit
While pictographs are abundant along this stretch of the Texas/Mexico border, the ones at Seminole Canyon are some of the easiest to access. Daily tours take visitors down into the canyon and up into the Fate Bell rock shelter, where most of the art lives.
The park also features campgrounds, a small gift shop and museum, and several other hiking trails, including a rim hike that takes you out to the cliffs over the Rio Grande River and a view of the Mexican border. The weather here is scorching in summer, cool in winter, but never cold, making it a great destination for winter months.
There’s another famous rock art site nearby–the Witte Museum’s White Shaman Preserve. Every Saturday in winter months this massive ancient mural is opened for a public tour. Add it to your trip to Seminole Canyon.
Wild Fact
The park derives its name from the Black Seminole scouts stationed in the area after the Civil War. The scouts were men of black and mixed Seminole ancestry who migrated west to escape slave hunters. Their work was integral to protecting early settlements in the region, and several of them earned Medals of Honor for their service to the US military. Their legacy in the Lower Pecos region of Texas is great and fascinating, and many of their descendants still call the area home.
Want to learn more about Seminole Canyon State Park? Visit the park’s website here.
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