Constructing Heritage along the Eastern Escarpment of the Southern High Plains Northwest Texas

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The removal of the Comanche from northwest Texas in the early 1870s opened the Southern High Plains eastern escarpment region to new pastores (Spanish sheepherders from New Mexico) and Anglo-Americans, who created order out of the landscape through construction of built cultural heritage. An Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) was used to document the built cultural heritage of pastores, buffalo hunters, cattle ranchers, and early homesteaders occupation of the region from ~1877-1914. Images from the UAV were used to create 3D models using photogrammetry for analysis. Results indicate that the pastores relied upon unmodified caliche boulders and cobbles in the construction of corrals. In contrast, Anglo-Americans used sandstone that was easily modified for dressed and coursed walls in constructing corrals and buildings. A variety of different rock types from local cobble deposits were incorporated as decorations into the exterior walls of a homesteader’s rock house. The variation in the types of rock used in construction demonstrates changing perceptions of the surrounding landscape as Spanish and Anglo-Americans moved into northwest Texas.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 24396