In the Shadow of the Carmens: Afield with a Naturalist in the Northern Mexican Mountains

18. Hacienda Piedra Blanca

I had heard of the Hacienda Piedra Blanca many times while living in West Texas, but I didn’t know exactly where it was on the east side of the Carmen Mountains . In the mid-1990s, when Chabela Sellers and I were conducting a bird project on her ranch, La Escondida, in the Serranías del Burro, we drove down the long Valle de los Venados coming from La Linda. We speculated many times exactly where the old Hacienda Piedra Blanca was, and one day we pinpointed the location. She knew the general location as she lives nearby, so we started up the road that led toward the big cottonwood trees we could see from Ejido Morelos, which we believed had to be the Hacienda Piedra Blanca. We didn’t get very far as the road was washed out, rough, and full of rocks. We didn’t have four-wheel drive, so we turned around to plan for another day. Many years ago ranchers on both sides of the border worked in this area. The grasslands were strong and there was abundant water. The late Hallie Stillwell, our neighbor on the Black Gap boundary, told Bill and I that the Stillwell family ranched Piedra Blanca for a number of years. They received a land grant from General Gerónimo Treviño in the late 1800s and the Stillwells moved their cattle to Coahuila . They crossed the Rio Grande at the well-known Stillwell Crossing located on the Adams Ranch. Years later the Stillwells had to discontinue ranching operations in Mexico and return to West Texas. Later a prominent Del Rio family 18 Hacienda Piedra Blanca In the Shadow of the Carmens 112 owned the ranch. Seven different ranches, all located some distance away, used the water from the Piedra Blanca. When the communal land system program was established in Mexico, many of the large ranches were taken from landowners and became part of the ejido communal property system. Ejido residents generally made their living off the land, so the former grasslands became overused by too much grazing, resulting in loss of seed banks in some areas and regeneration of brush species in other areas. Wildlife numbers also continued to rapidly decrease, as hunting was a way of life and conducted on a year-round basis. Many hectares of former grasslands are still here, but with rest they will return. Then perhaps the pronghorn can be reintroduced into this valley , which probably supported not only the pronghorn , but buffalo and mule deer in times past. We know that Mexican lobos were in this area, and perhaps one day when prey is abundant they too will be seen in the grasslands. Once we moved to Coahuila and I became familiar with the mountain, I learned Piedra Blanca ’s precise location. During every trip to El Club, we passed the road to the main house where cottonwoods still stand. I could imagine shade under the trees, water bubbling up from a spring nearby, voices of the past in the wind. CEMEX purchased the Hacienda Piedra Blanca , as it is recorded on the deeds. I was ecstatic. Hugo, Jonás, and I packed a lunch, cameras, and everything else we might need and headed out early one summer morning. It was hot early that day and with the dirt road up the Cuesta Malena under construction, the dust was so thick it rolled up over the hood of the truck like water. We turned north at El Melón and headed to the Valle de los Venados; the drive seemed longer than usual but at last we reached the turnoff. We followed Bill’s directions—there are many little side roads, courtesy of the ejidos. We made a couple of turns and arrived at the gate. The cottonwoods were looming and I could see part of the old house. I am nearly as passionate about old houses as I am about working with wildlife. I couldn’t Hacienda Piedra Blanca, 2006 113 Hacienda Piedra Blanca wait to see this old hacienda. I knew it wasn’t large; Bill had been here a couple of weeks ago and said, “Well, the house is not much, more an old rock and adobe shell.” The entire area was overgrown with weeds that were head high in some places, and the old house was in a sad state of disrepair. But I wasn’t disappointed. I...