150th year remembrance

Blog for April15, 2015

Approaching the Visitor Center this morning we noticed that the flags were flying at half-staff. When we asked why inside, we were told that President Obama had requested that flags be flown at half-staff today in remembrance of the assassination of President Lincoln. Just this morning I had mentioned that today was “tax” day and Frederick had said that it was also the date on which the Titanic sank and Lincoln assassinated. Last week we had watched the dvd “Lincoln” with Daniel Day Lewis. Of course, I always wonder, as most people do, how this country would have managed the Reconstruction if Lincoln had lived.

Today’s trail was called the Lower Canyon Trail, (5.1 mi., rated moderate) and the Canyon Loop Trail (1.32 mi., rated moderate) which we took yesterday going in a northerly direction; today we were headed south and the trail scenery looked completely different.

We noticed this plant that had sent up a stalk that looked like a large asparagus stalk.

A little further along we came upon a whole cluster of the plants.

Towards the end of the trail we found one that was blooming. 

Today’s trail traveled alongside the Little Red River. We made 22 crossings of the river, the first 16 were either through the water or the mud. The remaining were mostly dry.

The scenery for most of the trail was more wide open and through the prairie.

At the junction of the Lower Canyon Trail and the Canyon Loop Trail we stopped to eat our lunch and while we were finishing our apples these two cheerful people came along. They are Cheryl and Jamie, with Scout and Murphy, and traveled here from Houston. They are staying in the same campground as we are.

After we joined the Canyon Loop Trail the scenery got a bit more dramatic.

The trail was also a lot less muddy today.

We had two beautiful days for hiking. Tonight another rain storm is predicted.

After the hike we drove into town and as we passed Lake Theo, in the park, a bison herd was coming down the hill to drink. 

Quitaque, pronounced “kitty kway”, population 411, has a library that is open 2 - 5 Tues. - Friday. The library has internet access but no wifi. No help here in getting the blog out. We did meet this nice lady, Alita (which means Little Wing in Comanche; she is part Comanche), sitting under the sign that reads - “Enter as friends - depart as family”. She and her husband grew up in Quitaque but then moved away before returning in retirement. In addition to taking care of the library, she plays the piano at the local Methodist Church.

It’s time to get the fields ready for croups; they grow cotton here. We pulled way over to let this farm machinery pass down the road.

Alita mentioned several times that “there’s a lot of history here”, so on our way back into the park we stopped at the Interpretive Exhibits at an outdoor center that had this bison sculpture out in front.

Here we learned that stone tool fragments were discovered in 1965 and 1972 on the shores of Lake Theo. Archeological testing revealed a campsite and bison butchering and processing area dating back to the Age of Folsom Man, between 10,000 and 12,000 years ago. 

Projectile points and scraping tools were found at a depth of four feet, along with about 500 bones from an extinct type of bison. 

These scientists also discovered a grouping of bison leg and jaw bones, arranged in a circle and standing on end with a bison skull perched on top. It’s not clear why Folsom hunters arranged the bones this way. Some people believe it was part of a ceremonial tribute or a post-hunting ritual. If this is true, then the archaeologist believe that the bones are evidence of the role that bison may have played in ancient people’s spiritual lives as well as their diets. (Frederick’s hand is there for scale.)