Natural Landmark Shelving Rock

Archeological findings at an overhanging rock ledge on Walnut Creek show that this spot, midway between the Colorado and North Concho Rivers, served for hundreds of years as a campsite or village of nomadic Indians who sought its shelter, running water, wood, and the high lookout point above the ledge. After 1850, the campsite was used in turn by Fort Chadbourne and Fort Concho scouts, surveyors, and line riders from area ranches. Rangers, state militia, and a posse of settlers hunting horses and Indians rendezvoused there a few nights before the disastrous Battle of Dove Creek on Jan. 8, 1865.

Texas · United States