Jane's Window: My Spirited Life in West Texas and Austin

17. Rock Art: Not All Masterpieces Are in Museums

233 D. J. and i had been interested in historic preservation ever since we helped organize the Fort Stockton Historical Society back in the mid-fifties. We learned that you do not need to hold public office to make a big difference while trying to save historic structures and natural treasures. What you need most is an ability to influence those in power. We applied our experience from what we managed to achieve in Fort Stockton to help save an important and priceless site of prehistoric Texas art, to help create a state park to showcase those ancient wall paintings, and to establish the Rock art Foundation. in 1968, the US Corps of engineers were supervising the building of amistad Dam across the Rio Grande near Del Rio, Texas. The dam would control floodwaters and also create Lake amistad, a seventymile -long reservoir. although the national Park Service had already removed more than a million artifacts that would be submerged beneath the new lake’s waters , many rare prehistoric wall paintings would be under water once the dam was completed. Our goal was to preserve the rock art found beneath overhanging bluffs, at the confluence of the Rio Pecos and the Rio Grande. D. J. and i were both deeply concerned because so much ancient history would be underneath waters created by the dam. after Texas State archeologist Curtis Tunnel joined us in Del Rio, we went into the Rio Pecos canyons to visit many of the doomed sites. 17 a Rock Art N O T A l l M A S T e R p I C e S A R e I N M U S e U M S 234 C H A p T e R 1 7 On their walls, we could still distinguish along the river banks layers of sediment delineating periods of drought and flood. in 1968, just when we were becoming more involved with saving the Rio Pecos rock art, D. J.’s TB was back, with a vengeance. He spent the next six months recuperating in a sanitarium and we focused all of our family’s attention on getting him well. By the time he left the hospital, amistad Dam was completed and had created a new lake. This recreation area in the midst of the arid Texas countryside attracts thousands of visitors each year, including fishermen and boating enthusiasts. The US national Park Service supervises Lake amistad; its rangers patrol the water and the banks on the US side of the lake. However, the invaluable rock art treasures along the Pecos River, which empties into the lake, were still at serious risk of destruction, unprotected and virtually unknown to the general public. in 1970, i attended a concert of american indian dancers with my friend Solveig Turpin, an archeologist who had researched for her doctorate the Lower Pecos area and its rock art drawings. Admiring rock art at Painted Canyon in the Lake Amistad area. Today, both the entire expanse of Painted Canyon and these spectacular figures are underwater. 235 R O C K A R T During intermission, i asked Solveig, “What’s happening down on the river?” “Oh, Jane, the vandalism is just awful. Some people have used spray cans and painted over some of our 4,000-year-old wall paintings.” “Well, what are we going to do about it?” “i don’t know, but it’s just terrible. We are not going to have anything left.” “as much as i hate the idea, i think we need to form an organization.” “We probably do.” “Let me call Rosie Jones.” Rosemary Jones’s family, the Whiteheads, had ranched in that area for many generations and i knew she would want to work with us. Rosemary, Solveig, and i began working together to protect and save the prehistoric rock art located on private ranch land, but left unprotected by the ranchers. at the time, if someone wanted to go to a ranch near the Pecos River and dig for arrowheads or pots, the local landowners would usually say, “Sure, go on.” They did not care if people built campfires, even though the wood smoke damaged the wall paintings. Solveig Turpin, an archeologist specializing in the Lower Pecos Region, was instrumental in helping us establish the Seminole Canyon State Park. 236 C H A p T e R 1 7 Most ranchers were completely oblivious to the...