Hueco Tanks State Park: Texas’ Newest National Monument

By theadmin

Earlier this year, Hueco Tanks State Park became the latest site in Texas to be designated a National Historic Landmark. There are only around 30 such landmarks in Texas, and they include the Alamo, the 18th-century Mission Concepción, and the Apollo Mission Control Center. Adding Hueco Tanks to this company underscores its cultural and historical significance. And yet, the remote state park in the far-western corner of the state is still something of a mystery to many Texans. Its new status as a National Historic Landmark offers the perfect opportunity to dive back in and rediscover Hueco Tanks.

A Desert Oasis

The significance of Hueco Tanks State Park is ingrained in Texas’ ancient history. People began to settle in the western deserts of Texas more than 10,000 years ago, eking out an existence in the dry, rugged, and unforgiving landscape. Survival meant knowing where and when water fell and how to find it.

One of those places was Hueco Tanks, a geological formation of granite rocks that’s part of a broad basin between the Hueco Mountains to the east and the Franklin Mountains to the west. The weathered outcropping of rocks is cracked and eroded, forming a series of arches, ravines, and boulders. Its fissures and cavities — or “huecos” in Spanish — function as collecting bowls that capture and hold rainwater, sometimes for months on end. This made Hueco Tanks a rare oasis in the arid, northern fringes of the Chihuahuan Desert, transforming it into a magnet for life, settlement, and cultural ferment.

Early Settlers and Artists

For millennia, itinerant tribes living in and moving across the desert traveled through the Hueco Tanks area, some eventually settling. The Jornada Mogollon people, for instance, were some of the first settlers in the area, and they began cultivating the land around Hueco Tanks some 550 to 1,800 years ago. They constructed a semi-subterranean village and successfully ran small farms, relying on water from the hueco basins for irrigation. But the area’s rocky formation held greater significance for the Jornada villagers than merely agriculture — it was sacred. They covered the faces of the boulders and cliffs with pictographs, petroglyphs, and inscriptions. Today, this artwork comprises one of the largest collections of ancient art in North America.

“It’s estimated that there are between 3,000 and 6,000 pictographs at Hueco Tanks, including the largest concentration of painted masks or face-like figures in North America,” said Tim Roberts, a cultural resources coordinator for the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department, in a news release that accompanied the National Historic Landmark designation. “There are also extensive archeological deposits across the 860-acre property. It is the combination of these resources, as well as the oral histories and traditions of modern tribal communities, that help tell the story of those [who] have lived and traveled through the area for more than 10,000 years.”

Those stories include some of the earliest known representations of the myths that make up the belief system of the Southwestern Katsina and form the theological bedrock of many modern Puebloan societies. It is that tangible connection to the past that the landmark status will help preserve and interpret for generations to come.

The Road to Historical Landmark Status

The landmark application process began in 2014 and took around two years for supporting documentation to be gathered. The application highlights the quantity and diversity of Jornada art present at the site and describes how the specific layout and design of the space offers insight into the way the Hueco Tanks functioned as an important spiritual site within Jornada culture.

“Hueco Tanks, as one of the largest rock imagery sites in the American Southwest, is an important repository of Native American religious, cosmological, and ideological symbols and iconography in the region,” according to the application. “Furthermore, the daily lives of the site’s inhabitants are represented by an extensive unbroken record of archeological deposition that spans thousands of years and represents every known cultural-historical period in the region.”

The rock formations are not home solely to Jornada cultural artifacts. Other tribes also embellished the rock with art, including the Kiowa, Mescalero Apache, Comanche, Ysleta del Sur Pueblo, and the people of the Pueblo of Isleta who all considered the site sacred.

Later on, when Hueco Tanks served as a pit stop for Spanish and Anglo travelers, some added their names to the site, including a number of Texas Rangers and U.S. Cavalrymen. After years in private ownership, the site was acquired by the state in 1969 and opened to the public in 1970. It was designated an official State Antiquities Landmark in 1983. The new federal landmark status will avail the park to additional resources that will help park officials preserve these sites from any additional damage.

Visiting Hueco Tanks, a Bouldering Mecca

The fragile nature of the relatively small state park (it measures a mere 1 mile by 1 1⁄2 miles) has led to carefully managed access to the park. Certain areas are restricted, and other areas can only be accessed via guided tours — some Native American tribes still hold prayer gatherings at the area, and rules are in place to respect and protect their assemblies. Other parts of the park are open for hiking, camping, self-guided tours, and — one of the most popular activities in recent years — rock climbing.

Hueco Tanks is considered one of the best sites in the world for bouldering — a form of rock climbing that involves ascending small rock formations and cliffs without the use of harnesses or ropes. The site features dozens of rock climbing routes, some of which are only accessible via tours. Reservations are required, and a little research is recommended. Whether you head to Hueco Tanks to climb or to experience its unique culture and remarkable desert beauty, you are sure to enjoy an experience unlike anywhere else in Texas.

Other National Historic Landmarks

Discover more of Texas’ past at these sites.

Lower Pecos Canyonlands Archaeologist District: With 35 important sites, Val Verde County holds one of Texas’ most significant archaeological regions.
Lubbock Lake Landmark: Watch active archaeological digs uncovering 12,000 years of culture.
Plainview Site: Plainview point spear tips dating to 7800-5100 B.C. were found here.

From mountains to trails, learn about more of Texas’ national parks here.