Hueco Tanks

For the past 11,000 years, Hueco Tanks has attracted people who visited and lived around the rock hills, and left traces that archeologists can interpret. The high concentration of water, plants, and animals in and near the Tanks has made the area an oasis in the desert. Evidence of many different groups has survived; images were drawn on the rocks, broken items were left behind, and the soil in some areas has been stained by organic materials. Around 5,000 years ago the sandy land surface in this area stopped building up, so most of the discarded items, hearths, and house patterns left by people since that time remain on or near the modern ground surface.

The highly visible and shallow archeological record of Hueco Tanks is easily damaged by activities that erode the ground surface, and many have occurred there. The Tanks were a stopping point on a western trail for several decades, and the center of an active cattle ranch for almost 60 years. They have been visited by curiosity-seekers for at least 100 years. A number of artifacts were carried away by visitors before the state of Texas designated Hueco Tanks as a State Historic Site in 1969. For example, a 1937 newspaper article reported that visitors collected a basket from a rock overhang in or near Hueco Tanks, and in 1939, artist Forrest Kirkland noted that “Flint flakes and pot sherds are plentiful throughout the entire area but artifacts [complete objects] of all kinds are extremely scarce now.”

Archeologists have figured out the general outlines of the human history of Hueco Tanks by looking at information visible on the ground surface and the rocks. There is so much evidence of human activities (despite what was lost before the state park was established) that only a fraction of it has been studied so far. Interpreting the data from Hueco Tanks involves many challenges. Some of the most obvious clues—the rock art images—are difficult to date because they are on vertical rock surfaces. Radiocarbon dating is needed to assign other features like rock hearths to specific time periods. Almost all of the investigations conducted at Hueco Tanks to date have been surveys that recorded visible information, but in 1972 and 1973, excavations in one area found evidence of a village. The information from these studies is used here to summarize the history of life at Hueco Tanks over the past 11,000 years.

The earliest occupants of Hueco Tanks were Paleoindian hunters, who used a narrow pass between the rock hills to hunt herd animals, probably bison. During the Archaic period, mobile hunting and gathering cultures camped at the Tanks, drawn by the plant and animal resources and sheltering rock hills. In the late Archaic and early Formative period, native people began experimenting with cultivation of corn, beans, and other domesticated plants in well-watered locations like Hueco Tanks. Adoption of ceramics marked the beginning of the Formative period, when the cultural traditions and social patterns of people called the Jornada Mogollon were adopted, including a more settled lifestyle, limited farming, and widespread trade. Between A.D. 1075 and 1150 during a transitional period known as the Doña Ana phase, Jornada Mogollon people constructed a small pithouse community at Hueco Tanks, supported in part by small-scale farming. Much of the evidence recovered by archeologists at the Tanks can be attributed to this time period.

After the Native American settlements at Hueco Tanks were abandoned, the Tanks were visited by travelers on a trail that connected a series of major springs and water sources between the Pecos River and the Rio Grande. The earliest European visitors to the Tanks may have been Spanish soldiers who were exploring the area. In the centuries that followed, gold-seeking “1849-ers," cattle drovers, military and railroad surveyors, and other adventurers marked their names on the rocks at Hueco Tanks. Settlement came to the Tanks again in the 1890s, when a cattle ranch was established to take advantage of the natural water sources.

Over the centuries, water was the main resource that drew all of these people to Hueco Tanks. Natural chutes are visible on the rocks even when water is not flowing in them, and native campsites were clustered around locations where they reached the ground. Historic inscriptions like the misspelled “Watter hear”—painted in wagon wheel grease—document the importance of this resource, and similar messages may have been delivered by the prehistoric rock art. The rock hills strongly influenced settlement as well: they captured and channeled water, provided shelter, served as a canvas for rock art, provided a base for food-grinding facilities, and yielded fragments for use as heating elements in hearths and roasting ovens.

The lifeways of the people who used Hueco Tanks during particular time periods are described below.

Earliest Peoples

The earliest human-made objects found at Hueco Tanks are fluted lanceolate points of the Folsom culture. Between 9,000 and 8,200 B.C., these mobile groups hunted large herd animals across the grass-covered basins between the mountain ranges. In this region, Folsom hunters spent the winter in the broad basins near the Rio Grande valley, and then headed north to hunt on the southern Great Plains during the summer and early fall. Although the diet of Folsom people included a number of plants and animals, their most notable prey was the huge straight-horned Ice Age bison, Bison antiquus, now extinct. Folsom camps typically were positioned at locations offering an overview of the surrounding area and ready access to water. At Hueco Tanks, Folsom lance points were found on the rocks above a pass between two rock hills; bison could have driven between the hills and hunted easily from that vantage point.

Other Folsom camps in the region have been found in similar settings, including sites LA93330, LA93331, and LA93336, located on a ridge above an intermittent drainage in the Tularosa Basin of New Mexico. Folsom points were clustered around Three Buttes—bedrock outcrops overlooking several large playas. In the San Andres Mountains, a campsite containing Clovis and Folsom points and end scrapers was positioned at the mouth of Rhodes Canyon. Early Paleoindian tools and Folsom points were found in sites 41HZ504 and 41HZ505, on the upper Hueco Mountain alluvial fan near Padre Canyon.

Although many Folsom camps have been recorded in the region, sites dating to earlier (Clovis) and slightly later (Plainview and Scottsbluff) Paleoindian periods are not common. Some sites of this age probably are deeply buried. The big game hunting period ended because climate changes apparently caused a decline in large herd animals and Bison antiquus became extinct, causing groups to adopt a broader diet based on a variety of medium-sized and small animals and plants.

From Mobile to More Settled Lifeways

From around 8000 B.C. to A.D. 200, Hueco Tanks was periodically occupied by Archaic peoples. Moving seasonally from camp to camp, they hunted a variety of game animals and gathered wild plants. Archaic hunters chipped stone dart points that were fastened onto spears, launched with throwing sticks called atlatls. Of varied styles, these dart points are the main evidence for use of the area by Archaic peoples. Based on the relative number of dart point styles identified by archeologist Logan McNatt, it appears that very few groups occupied Hueco Tanks during the Early Archaic period. Sites dating to this period could be buried, however.

Occupation of the Tanks apparently increased during the Middle Archaic period (4000/3000 to 1200 B.C.), focusing on the sheltered areas between the rock hills. Evidence of small, temporary huts has been found at other Middle Archaic sites in the region and similar huts may have been built at Hueco Tanks, though no direct evidence of them has been recovered.

Over 60 percent of the dart points from Hueco Tanks (including 20 from the Kegley excavations at the village site) date to the Late Archaic period (1200 B.C. to A.D. 200). People apparently lived in many areas around the Tanks, echoing a population increase in the region. Evidence of Late Archaic huts and a trash disposal area were found at the El Arenal site 8 miles west of Hueco Tanks, suggesting that camps were being occupied for longer periods of time. Most rockshelters in the region have deposits dating to the Late Archaic period, so many of the 160+ small shelters nestled into the rock hills at the Tanks could have been occupied during this period.

Cultivated plants appeared in the region around the beginning of the Late Archaic period. The earliest precisely-dated corn (Zea mays) has been found in rockshelters in south-central New Mexico, dating between 1370 and 940 B.C. Other cultivated plants were adopted slightly later, including tobacco (1200 to 940 B.C.), amaranth (1110 to 900 B. C.), and beans (350 B.C. to A.D. 60). These plants made up only a small part of the Late Archaic diet, however, and no cultivated plant remains from Hueco Tanks have been dated to this early period.

In general, the Late Archaic diet was diverse, including many desert shrubs, succulent plants, and weeds. Prehistoric cooks harvested agave and other succulent plants and slow-roasted the “hearts” or stem bases in large pits filled with heated rocks, which served as earth ovens. Groups of rock features in two areas of Hueco Tanks appear to date to the Late Archaic, and may represent ovens used to roast succulent plants.

Adoption of ceramics around A.D. 200 marked the beginning of the Formative period, which saw rapid changes in settlement, house forms, diet, and technology. Dart point size diminished during this period and small points used to tip arrows were introduced, but the use of darts was never completely abandoned. The 1,200 year Formative period is divided into the Mesilla, Doña Ana, and El Paso phases, which mark some of these major changes.

The first Formative period is the Mesilla phase, which is 800 years long (A.D. 200-1000). Use of rock hearths to process plants reached a peak in the region around A.D. 600, but this did not occur at Hueco Tanks, for reasons unknown. As regional hearth use declined, populations shifted to areas like the Tanks which were located on alluvial fans. Ceramic bowls and jars were made locally, the earliest being plain (El Paso Brown), while later pots were decorated with simple red or black designs (El Paso Bichrome). Imported Mimbres Black-on-white ceramics also were used in camps sheltered by the rock hills at Hueco Tanks, indicating participation in a regional trade network with groups living in southern New Mexico.

Mesilla phase houses include the simple, temporary huts of earlier periods as well as more substantial, rectangular pithouses, which may have been built for longer stays. The abundant resources of Hueco Tanks and its position on the Hueco Mountain alluvial fan suggest that groups would have stayed there longer, although concrete evidence has not been found of either Mesilla phase huts or pithouses.

During the 300 year Doña Ana phase (A.D. 1000-1300), occupation of Hueco Tanks and other alluvial fan settings reached a peak. Excavations in the 1970s at the Tanks found a Doña Ana phase settlement with six isolated rectangular structures (see Village Life for more details).

Almost all of the pottery used in the Doña Ana phase settlement was made locally, consisting of El Paso Brown, El Paso Bichrome, and early versions of El Paso Polychrome (decorated in red and black). Small amounts of ceramics traded from southern New Mexico also were used, including Classic Mimbres Black-on-white, Playas Red, Chupadero Black-on-white, and Three Rivers Red-on-terracotta. A few other pots came from more distant locations: St. Johns Polychrome and Wingate Black-on-red from west-central New Mexico, and Ramos Polychrome from Chihuahua, Mexico. Most of the regional trade was conducted with groups north of Hueco Tanks.

Corn and beans probably were grown near the Doña Ana phase structures, and were recovered from the soil excavated from the structures. Native plants also made up part of the diet, for in another area of the Tanks, prehistoric chefs built burned rock features with diameters ranging up to 7 meters (23 feet). These are remains of plant roasting pits, surrounded by heaps of discarded fire-cracked rocks. This area currently contains a high concentration of agave plants, which may be the food that was being cooked. A large chipped stone knife found near one of the pit features could have been used to remove the spiny agave leaves, for it is similar to the expedient (quickly made) tools recovered near agave roasting pits at the Wind Canyon site.

Hueco Tanks also was visited during the El Paso phase, which was 150 years long (A.D. 1300-1450). Reliance on cultivated foods like corn and beans apparently increased during this period, but occupations on the alluvial fans decreased. Multi-room pueblos were built in some areas, but no evidence of a pueblo has been found at Hueco Tanks. The limited El Paso phase presence at the Tanks seems to represent visits from groups who lived at nearby pueblo sites, and came for the purpose of hunting, agave roasting, or other activities.

Five miles northwest lie the ruins of Hot Well Pueblo, on Fort Bliss. With as many as 100 rooms arranged in small blocks, the site covers 60 acres and is the largest known El Paso phase pueblo in the state. It included a 0.2 acre reservoir that captured water from a channel on the alluvial fan. Eight miles to the south of Hueco Tanks was the Sabina Mountain pueblo, which had as many as 25 to 50 rooms. The walls of the structures at both sites were made of layers of adobe poured in courses, topped by brush roofs plastered with mud and supported by large posts.

Similar large El Paso phase sites on the west side of the basin include Firecracker Pueblo, located just outside the city limits of El Paso. At this pueblo and other late sites, there is evidence of participation in far-flung trade networks. Nonlocal ceramics, marine shells, and Mexican copper bells indicate a broad variety and range of contacts during the El Paso phase, when the Chihuahuan desert may have been the center of an interaction sphere involving the Southwest and Mexico.

Around A.D. 1450 there was an abrupt return throughout the region to fully mobile adaptations like those of the Archaic period. This shift may have been due to breakdown of regional trade networks, abandonment of the region and resettlement by Athapaskans, and/or climate changes causing a shift to a more mobile lifestyle. All of the pueblos in the region were abandoned, including Madera Quemada.

When the earliest Spanish explorers arrived in the region in the 1580s, they found widely scattered, nomadic groups living along the Rio Grande valley, including the Mansos, Sumas, Tanos, and Jumanos. The native people occupied brush huts and obtained food by hunting and gathering. In 1680, pueblo-dwelling Native Americans from central New Mexico migrated to El Paso during the Pueblo Revolt, and all of these native groups were then gathered into missions established along the Rio Grande. Mescalero Apache groups occupying mountainous areas of the region at this time and possibly earlier did not enter the missions, and continued to make a living through raiding. The possible connection of any of these groups to the earlier Jornada Mogollon people has not been determined.

Historic Period

The historic period of the region where Hueco Tanks State Historic Site is located began with visits of Spanish explorers in the late 16th century. Scouting parties may have stopped at Hueco Tanks in 1692 before heading through the pass at Cerro Alto to scale the Hueco Mountains and locate water and salt sources further east.

Native American presence at Hueco Tanks continued. A Mescalero Apache group reportedly camped in or near the Tanks in 1777, having been pushed out of their home range by Comanche Indians encroaching from the north. A conflict between Native Americans and Mexican troops in 1839 apparently took place at Hueco Tanks. Some 60 years later, Kiowa informants told an ethnographer that Kiowa warriors had been trapped in a rock-walled canyon for days, but finally escaped under cover of darkness. Present-day Kiowa elders and others believe that the 1839 battle scene is depicted on a rock art panel at the Tanks.

Acquisition of the territory by the United States brought an influx of Anglo-American officials, adventurers, and settlers to the El Paso valley. Among the first U.S. citizens to pass through the Tanks were gold seekers, beginning around 1848 when news of gold strikes at Sutter’s Mill in California reached the eastern United States. Two routes across west Texas became popular with travelers to California during this period: the “emigrant” or “upper” road from San Antonio and Austin to El Paso via Fredericksburg, and the “military” or “lower” road from San Antonio and Corpus Christi to El Paso via Las Moras Springs. As one of the few reliable water sources between the Pecos River and the Rio Grande, Hueco Tanks soon became an important way station on the upper road.

From 1858 to 1859, Hueco Tanks was a stage stop on the 2,800 mile Butterfield Overland Mail route between St. Louis and San Francisco. A concentration of historic inscriptions dating to this brief period suggests that the station was located near a rockshelter at the base of a hill topped by many natural water tanks. After the stone and adobe stage station was abandoned it fell into ruin, and the stones eventually were robbed for use in other buildings.

In 1895, prominent El Paso businessman Juan Armendariz purchased three sections centered on Hueco Tanks, and began to use the area for ranching. Two large inscribed stones document Armendariz’s role as “dueño de este cerro” (owner of this hill). In 1898, Silverio Escontrias purchased most of the Hueco Tanks area from Armendariz. By 1902 he had built an adobe ranch house, a three-room stone house, and a two-room stable, the latter possibly constructed of stones from the old stage station. Escontrias established a cattle and horse ranch which was operated by his family until the mid 1950s, and built eight dams from rocks and soil to capture the water that ran off the rocks. He also opened the Tanks to the public soon after acquiring them, and they became a popular recreational destination and picnic grounds frequented by persons from El Paso and nearby Fort Bliss. Troops from the Fort also used the area for military training periodically.

Modern Times

A growing interest in the archeology of the region prompted formation of the El Paso Archaeological Society (EPAS) in 1922. The group promoted preservation and investigation of regional archeological sites, including Hueco Tanks. An early EPAS vice president was photographer Otis Aultman, who took the first known photographs of Hueco Tanks rock art. Aultman and EPAS president Martin Crimmins actively and publicly supported protection of Hueco Tanks as a public park. In 1935, the National Park Service offered to purchase four sections around the Tanks, but Silverio Escontrias’ widow Pilar was not interested in selling. His sons Juan, Jim, and Ramon served as caretakers of the ranch until it was sold in 1956.

The Tanks passed through a series of owners during the 1950s and early 1960s, most of whom attempted to develop it as tourist attraction. As various times, rental cabins, stables, a café, and even a fake ghost town were constructed there, and plans were floated for large residential and resort developments.

Awareness of the significance of the rock art and archeology of Hueco Tanks and its increasing risk of loss continued to grow in El Paso. Members of the local historical society and faculty from the University of Texas at El Paso lobbied county officials, who purchased the property in 1965. Under encouragement from state legislators, the county transferred the property to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department in 1969, and Hueco Tanks State Historic Site opened in June of 1970.

Today, park rangers protect the archeology of Hueco Tanks State Historic Site under the authority of the Antiquities Code of Texas. Certain areas may be visited only when accompanied by an official guide, to ensure that fragile archeological deposits and features are not damaged. These practices will protect the record of human history at Hueco Tanks for many years to come, so it can continue to provide useful information on desert survival under changing climatic conditions. The Escontrias family ranch house serves as the Interpretive Center for visitors. Campers, hikers, and rock climbers visit the park for recreational and educational purposes, while Tigua, Kiowa, Mescalero Apache, and Comanche Indian tribes, and other groups find a spiritual connection at this desert oasis.