Palo Duro Canyon State Park, Canyon, Texas

I have been wanting to visit Palo Duro Canyon State Park for a while now.  We had visited Caprock Canyon in October 2016, and I heard that Palo Duro was supposed to be something to see. Honestly, it was very nice, but not awe inspiring. The hills and mountains at Caprock Canyon are much nicer. The one thing I noticed here were the nice, smooth trails which means we did not need hiking shoes, but we were able to wear our sandals.

Our first stop was the Visitor Center where we learned about the Native Indians who used to live in the canyon, which was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps beginning in 1933 through 1937. The projects included the public buildings, including the El Coronado Lodge, cabins constructed of native sandstone, culverts, hiking and biking trails, many of which are still in use today.  

In the late Tertiary (Miocene-Pliocene) fossils two to ten million years old, occur locally in old river channel and floodplain deposits in the Ogallala formation. Animal life included a variety of 3-toed and 1-toed horses plus camels, shovel-tusked mastodons, rhinoceroses, pronghorns, primitive deer and assorted carnivores including bone-eating dogs. Climate was milder and rainfall was generally more abundant. 

Fossil remains from Palo Duro Canyon and the Canadian River breaks indicate that large, flat-headed amphibians, fish and crocodile-like phytosaur reptiles were the dominant animals in the swamps, streams and lakes of the Triassac Period (180 to 200 million years ago).

About 10,000 years ago the Folsom culture appeared. Folsom man used slightly different tools than the Clovis man. He hunted giant bison by surrounding and killing them. Later, the Plano culture evolved. Plano men used a variety of projectile points and frequently killed giant bison by driving them over cliffs or into gullies.

As the canyon formed, prehistoric bison roamed across North America. With horns stretching nine feet across you could say they were the original longhorns. Their decedents are the American bison we see today. Sixty million nearsighted bison once thundered from Mexico to Canada at 38.5mph - each one the size of a Jeep. When the Comanche and other tribes acquired horses, hunting bison became easier. The bison became so important that for many people it is still sacred.

Eagle

Aoudad or Barbary Sheep

In 1957, 31 sheep were released southwest of Claude and 13 were released in the Quitaque area. By 1966, the population had increased to about 400-500 sheep, and by 1989, the statewide population had reached approximately 20,000. The sheep were released for hunting and recreational purposes, and was, at the time, believed not to compete with any native animals for food or space. However, evidence may exist to prove that the sheep may compete with mule deer for food. Currently, hunting is not permitted in the park.

Cooper's Hawk

This hawk is named after William Cooper, a New York ornithologist who lived from 1798 to 1864. 

Quanah Parker was the son of the Comanche Chief Peta Nocona and Cynthia Ann Parker, an Anglo settler who was kidnapped and assimilated into the tribe. Leader of the Quahadi band of Comanche, he led his people before and after the Red River war. After the forced move to the reservation, federal agents appointed Quanah Parker to be chief of all remaining Comanche bands. He later became a successful rancher, friend of President Roosevelt, and founder of the pan-tribal Native American Church.

Kiowa Camp

Mother and Child

Drying Buffalo meat

The Comanches moved southward to dominate this area during the 1700s and were soon joined by the Kiowas and Kiowa-Apaches who also came from the north. 

Conditions within the Indian Territory were dire. The federal government failed to provide enough supplies. People were starving. While some chose to stay, many American Indians fled to the Llano Estacado in search of food and vengeance. Tribes united against common enemies: US Army, settlers, and bison hunters. Though targeting bison hunters at their settlement (Adobe Walls) was effective in seeking vengeance, bison were already overhunted to the brink of extinction. 

The Comanche were superb horsemen and fierce warriors. Operating as autonomous bands, they ranged from Durango, Mexico to central Kansas. The most notorious was the Quahadi (Antelope) Band led by Quanah Parker. They were the last American Indian group to surrender at Fort Sill nine months after the conflict in the canyon. The descendants of many of these survivors still live in Oklahoma today.

The Battle of Palo Duro Canyon

As the sun rose on September 28, 1874, Colonel Mackenzie led the US Army into Palo Duro Canyon. They worked their way down the canyon, forcing the Kiowa, Cheyenne, and Comanche to flee and leave their winter supplies behind. Mackenzie's soldiers burned the supplies in a huge bonfire and slaughtered over a thousand horses. Loss of human life was low, but the tribes could not make it through the winter without their supplies.

Coronado's Expedition

Francisco Vasquez de Coronado was the first and most famous Spanish explorer to cross the Panhandle. He came north from Mexico City with a large army in 1541. Marching east from Pecos he is believed to have camped in Palo Duro Canyon on his way to the supposedly rich province of Quivira far to the northeast. He went as far as present-day Kansas (but found no precious metals).

The year was 1933 and the Great Depression left over 13 million people unemployed. President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in order to create jobs and training for the young men and military veterans. The Texas State Parks Board received the benefits of FDR's plan when 31 state parks were developed between 1933 and 1942. Palo Duro Canyon was approved by the National Park Service as a work site. Between 1933 and 1937, 200 men in six companies built the park road, El Coronado Lodge, the entrance building, three cabins, cow camp (shelter houses), and many trails.

Building the road

 

In early August 1933, several hundred men began the important task of constructing a 1-1/2 mile road from the canyon rim to the floor. While difficult areas were blasted with dynamite, the vast majority of the construction was accomplished with hand tools such as picks, shovels, and wheelbarrows. In less than six months they succeeded in creating the first vehicle access to the canyon floor. On November 26, 1933, the formal opening of the road was marked by a ceremony sponsored by the Canyon Chamber of Commerce. The road is still in use today.

Life in Camp

During the depression work was scarce and life was hard. For many young men and military veterans, the opportunity to work with the CCC meant a stable income. Each young man received $30 per month with $25 returning home to his family. While the work was usually manual labor, many received valuable training and education from "locally experienced men." Each recruit was enrolled for a six-month period and was required to work a 40 hour week and follow all camp rules. Camps were monitored by the U.S. Army and each company was commanded by a lieutenant and captain. 

After we left the Visitor Center, we started our drive through the park. We stopped once for a short walk to go see the "Cowboy Dugout."

Cowboy Dugout

The Cowboy Dugout is a replica of the cabin Charles Goodnight built when he was establishing the JA Ranch. I took a picture of the inside, showing what life was like in the late 1800s. As I was searching for more information on the cowboy dugout, I came across the website for The Local Tourist. Author Theresa Goodrich has an interesting rendition about the history of the area and Charles Goodnight, which you can find in this short story.

During the 1930s, young men working in the Civilian Conservation Corps built this trail and much of the rest of Palo Duro Canyon State Park. The CCC was a relief program during the Great Depression, putting men to work developing parks all over the United States. You can still see the CCC's work along this trail today; look for the four bridges constructed from hand-cut local stone.

Palo Duro is Spanish for "hard wood" in reference to the Rock Mountain Juniper trees still seen in places in the canyon. It is also home to a variety of wildlife. The endangered Palo Duro mouse is found in only three counties in the Texas panhandle and nowhere else. The park has mule deer, roadrunners, wild turkey and cottontails. The threatened Texas horned lizard is also found in this region. There are also white-tailed deer, coyotes, Barbary sheep, bobcats and raccoons. The only wildlife we saw were birds and deer. For them to say that there are a lot of sheep in the park, we did not see any.

Palo Duro Canyon is approximately 120 miles long, 600 to 800 feet deep, and is the second largest canyon in the United States. The canyon was formed less than 1 million years ago when an ancient river first carved its way through the Southern High Plains. The rocks expose a geologic story which began about 250 million years ago, layer by layer revealing a panoramic view of magnificent color. The canyon's archeological and ethnological treasures suggest about 12,000 years of human habitation, rising and waning as climate varied among periods of abundant moisture, aridity, and sometimes severe drought.