Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument Lake Meredith, TX
The Fritch Fortress campground at Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument on Lake Meredith is situated on a Caprock Mesa overlooking the lake below and the unoccupied western shores of Lake Meredith. It is free and only has eight sites but is well maintained and clean. Our 10 AM reservations for the ranger led tour of the quarries allowed us enough time to check by the park headquarters and talk with the ranger who told us to make sure we went to Mills Canyon in the Kiowa National Grasslands in New Mexico.
At the Visitor Center we met our guide Stephen who is tall, thin, and very knowledgeable. Stephen explained to us that man has visited, quarried, lived, traded, mined, and hunted in and around Lake Meredith for over 13,000 years. The Alibates Flint is an agatized dolomite in the Permian age Caprock Dolomite formation which, depending on the impurities of various trace elements, comes in a rainbow of colors: maroon, deep purple, orange, greenish blue, white, yellow, deep green and gold which made it a valuable trading commodity in the Indian world. The pits were excavated 2-8 feet deep and 10-20 feet in diameter using bison bones and rock tools. The flint was used for tools, trading, and weapons. The initial wave of immigrants were mainly hunters following the now extinct mega fauna animals. Later, visitors inhabited the surrounding valley floors nearer the game, irrigated gardens, and water. Until the arrival of the Spaniards and iron, the flint was the hardware of choice used in daily life.
Adobe Walls
Our next stop was at the site of the 1874 second battle of Adobe Walls located in a beautiful open meadow on the north side of the Canadian river on the Turkey Track Ranch. It was here that 28 buffalo hunters barely held off a dawn attack of an estimated 200-700 Comanche, Kiowa, and Cheyenne Indians using revolvers and big bore buffalo rifles. Two of the battle participants, Hugh Olds and Billy Dixon are buried here. The other granite monuments are dedicated to both the combatants and stand alone on the windblown prairie. Although only in use for a mere four months the Adobe Walls has an enduring place in the American west.
