Blue Mountain

Blue Mountain, 4.5 mi. north, is Winkler County's highest point at 3400 feet and is not actually a mountain but the southern escarpment of the Llano Estacado. It long served as a lookout and landmark on the west Texas plains and as a dependable location for fuel, shelter, and water. Indians found fuel, sheltering caves, and water there, left artifacts and 138 mortar holes for grinding food, and made pictographs on cave walls with crushed stone paints, including images of human hands, serpents, horses, geometric patterns, and a story of a fight between two lizards. A directional sign told of a water-hole nine days by trail to the northeast. A 1938 archeological excavation of rock shelters along the ridge revealed signs of prolonged occupation, and a spring that once flowed near the rock shelter later became dry because the underground water table had lowered. The pass is called Avary Gap for John Avary, first settler, 1880.

Texas · United States