For travelers heading West across the Southern United States, the long, flat stretch of highway in Texas can begin to seem never-ending…the horizon appearing always out of reach.
When turning off the highway and entering Seminole Canyon State Park, an entirely different landscape begins: mountains…canyons…plant life. Desert plants bloom whenever there's any moisture or humidity. Here, in the Chihuahuan Desert, running along the border of Mexico and the US, only 13 inches of rain a year fall.
“Everything here has adapted to survive with limited resources,” explains Park Superintendent Randy Rosales.
Survival is what makes Seminole Canyon State Park what it is today. Throughout the park are cave paintings dating back 4,000 years. These messages from civilizations past…prehistoric people…have survived and endured over thousands of years.
Rosales relates that some of the canyons were inhabited by people dating back 12,000 years when the Chihuahuan Desert was grassland. Through this changing area, nomadic tribes and families came and went, leaving the most abstract, well-preserved wall art in the world.
Seminole Canyon State Park hosts more than 200 pictograph sites, ranging from single paintings to caves with panels of art over a hundred feet long. Some symbols are repeated Some pictures have meanings long lost.
“Tour guide describes canyon awnings and pictographs left by ancient civilizations at Seminole Canyon State Park” [Photo Credit: Texas Parks and Wildlife Department].
One constantly repeated motif is deer antlers, a symbol which researchers believe to have more than one meaning. When the art was created over 4,000 years ago, deer were the largest game animals available to hunters in the region. They provided meat, hides, bones and antlers for use as food, clothing, weapons and tools.
Rosales, as park superintendent, has had the opportunity to experience all of the cave paintings. He has trekked up the mountain trails and sat on the edges of the canyons. He has seen mountain ranges in Mexico, over 150 miles away, visible via an uninterrupted view from Seminole. The question becomes what impresses him?
“Fate Bell Shelter [on the northwest side of the park] has a particular panel called the Triad Panel,” he points out. “It has a winged figure…and is one of the more well-preserved figures that you'll see in the entire park. The colors are very vibrant, considering how old the painting is. The image sticks with you…and it stands out. [The piece is] about 4 feet high [with a] wingspan of 5 feet. It is very impressive.”
Another favored spot is Panther Cave. With over 100s of drawings within a single rock shelter, it is one of the most popular destinations inside the park.
“It's hard to access,” explains Rosales. “It's in a cave across from the main part of the park. You can see it from the overlook [but] you have to get to it by boat, assuming the water levels are high enough.”
Despite researchers visiting the cave paintings from all over the world, the wall art still remains mysterious to scientists and visitors alike. The art style that appears in the park’s cave is only seen in small portions of the Rio Grande, Pecos and Devils Rivers along the border.
“There are some leading researches who [support] theories or possible connections to a very isolated tribe in Mexico,” states Rosales. “Somewhere along the way, the symbolism in these [cave] ruins led to other cultures that now exist in Mexico. What we [do] know of those people is that they are direct descendants of [the] Mayans. The drawings [here] are way older than those great civilizations. It's interesting that those thoughts, religions and beliefs may have started here.”
Research on these cave paintings – the oldest rock art in North America – continues, with scientists and historians hoping to find clues on what they mean and who they may be tied to.
The Rock Art Foundation, which promotes the conservation and study of the Native American Rock Art, postulates that “No one knows what the people who painted the Pecos River or Red Linear style called themselves or were called by their neighbors. These [native] people of northern Mexico and southern Texas are often referred to as Coahuiltecans, which refers to a language rather than a specific tribe. What is clear is that the Archaic people were not directly related to the tribes of historic times, all of whom came from the Plains. It is quite possible that their genetic strain perpetuated in some of the modern people of northern Mexico and southern Texas.”
No matter who made these paintings or what their true meaning is, one thing is for certain. Their impact has stood the test of time. Thousands of years later visitors from all over the world travel to Seminole Canyon State Park to study, admire and appreciate the prehistoric paintings left by a forgotten people…a true yet mysterious link to the past.