History Via Pictograph
Seminole Canyon tells a rich story — with breathtaking views
Seminole Canyon State Park and Historic Site, just west of Comstock, Texas, might have taken its name from the U.S. army scouts stationed in the area in the nineteenth century, but it’s the region’s much older human record that draws most of the visitors there today.
I was fortunate to tour the park last fall with superintendent Randy Rosales, who grew up in this remote area and is a wealth of information about the canyon’s history. Rosales led us down into the limestone canyon on a path that would’ve been treacherous when wet. But the breathtaking views were worth the effort. I had never seen anything so beautiful.
The people who inhabited this rocky, steep-walled canyon some 4,000 years ago left their traces in the form of stylized pictographs – a treasure trove of hundreds of images painted in vivid earth tones. “They used mostly ground-up rocks and minerals mixed with other local ingredients,” Rosales explained to our group, “to create the paintings on the walls of the rock shelters.”
Our trek took us eventually back up several steep stairs to the Fate Bell pictograph site, one of 18 different areas in the canyon adorned with ancient paintings, and one of the few open to the public on guided tours.
The creators of these paintings depicted animals and plant life. But they survived primarily on plants, Rosales said. “They did hunt animals,” Rosales says, “but few lived in the canyon, and you weren’t guaranteed a successful hunt.”
WINDOW TO THE PAST Archeological artifacts and cave art date back to the earliest human habitation in this part of the Trans-Pecos area. Eighteen areas of the canyon feature ancient paintings that span generations, allowing inhabitants to tell their individual stories.
According to Rosales, the pictographs are a way for different generations of the canyon to tell their stories. One group would paint what happened while they were living, and the next group would come along and add their story. There’s evidence of where they slept and ate while living in the rock shelters, too; Rosales pointed out several rocks that, given the indentations of blades in the rocks, would have been used by Indians to lean against while making meals or cutting things up.
Though the canyon’s paintings were recorded in the 1920s, the park was opened to the public only in 1980.
And just how did it get its name? That would be in honor of the detachment of 100 men the U.S. Army called Seminole-Negro Indian Scouts, who were brought to the region in 1870 and later garrisoned at nearby Fort Clark. The scouts protected the West Texas frontier from the Apache and Comanche bands between 1872 and 1914. The complement of scouts was known for its exceptional cunning and toughness. Not one was ever wounded or killed in combat, and four earned the prestigious Medal of Honor.
A visitor center onsite tells this story, as well as that of ancient pictograph-makers, and the canyon’s native animals and plants. Displays also present the history of Comstock, which was once a railroad town and later a ranching community. Visitors will also find miles of great hiking trails and camping sites — and memories, like mine, to be long savored and remembered.
