Revealing Secrets of Ancient Paintings

By Bill Sontag
bill.sontag@delrionewsherald.com
Staff Writer, Del Rio News-Herald

Reprinted with permission of the Del Rio News-Herald
Published April 18, 2005

Against a backdrop of mystic art more than 4,000 years old, Juan Gonzalez, Del Rio's economic development coordinator, and Carolyn Boyd, anthropologist and founder of Shumla School, agreed to what may be a universal truth — that human history is driven by a genetic predisposition to spirituality.

Gonzalez's first trip into the rock art countryside of the Lower Pecos region rewarded him with proximity to ancient paintings, close enough to touch, distanced by the arcane mysteries of long-ago shamans.

Painted illustrations and icons on hundreds of Val Verde County limestone walls sprang from societies thriving here as much as 1,300 years before California's oldest giant sequoias were even seedlings.

In addition to the paintings' profound spiritual value to those who worked and lived with them, Gonzalez believes tourism dollars can be derived from visitors hoping to learn about, even share the power of the paintings.

"Why hasn't this already happened?" Gonzalez queried.

"What are the obstacles, where are the barriers, and why haven't they been overcome?"

Gonzalez, Boyd and Kathleen Burgess, Shumla School program coordinator, met at the Rock Art Foundation's Galloway White Shaman Preserve, perched high above and on the sides of bluffs overlooking the Pecos River near the U.S. Highway 90 West bridge.

The preserve was a gift from a local rancher, guided only by his admonition to use it to educate the public about rock art, and to preserve the art through stewardship and necessary safeguards.

The San Antonio-based organization provides 90-minute public tours on Saturdays at 12:30 p.m. For more information, use their Internet site, www.rockart.org.

But Thursday, Boyd, Gonzalez and Burgess had the place to themselves, facilitating Boyd's careful and detailed explanation of her doctoral program research at Texas A&M University.

During the dissertation project, Boyd learned of nearly identical symbols and designs among the spiritual traditions of Huichol Indians in mountainous regions of west central Mexico.

Information and images obtained from the Huichol suggest strong parallels in both shape and color to what Boyd believes was the ceremonial intent behind the rock art of the Lower Pecos Region.

Standing in the White Shaman limestone alcove, she outlined those similarities to Gonzalez while a hooded oriole perched nearby, and the trills of tiny canyon wrens echoed across the canyon blooming with ocotillo, prickly pear, and mountain rose-mallow.

The bluffside niche offers a commanding, panoramic view of the Pecos River canyon, the famous high bridge, and the scenery of the side canyon where the unique White Shaman was painted.

It is accessed with a guide over what the Rock Art Foundation describes as "a moderately strenuous hike down to the site."

The White Shaman, Boyd explained, is not the largest panel of rock art in the region, but clearly one of the most important.

She urged Gonzalez to visit other sites such as Seminole Canyon State Park and Historic Site and its famous Fate Bell Shelter, and Panther Cave straddling the boundary of the state park and Amistad National Recreation Area.

Gonzalez remained perplexed about why all these world-class ingredients have never successfully been marketed as a revenue-generating tourism package.

Next stop on his orientation tour was Shumla School, Boyd's "hands-on," experience-oriented campus and curriculum located on 70 acres of the Shumla Ranch donated by Jack and Missy Harrington.

For more information on the school and its programs, visit www.shumla.org.

Boyd, Burgess and Gonzalez took a cursory tour, then sat in the shade of the spacious pavilion and pored over plans and drawings for future developments, such as an ethnobotanical garden.

For now, the dream is merely a colorful landscape schematic drawing.

The trio discussed possibilities for an off-site, centrally located visitor information point that would provoke more tourists and travelers to learn about and see the region's archeological resources, and participate in the activities that facilitate such experiences.

Scanning the slopes and draws of Shumla School, Gonzalez discussed mass transit options — buses and vans — for getting larger groups to the desert campus.

"You don't want a lot of parking out here. You want to give them the experience of what's out here," he said.

Gonzalez shared ideas for marketing and packaging the archeology and desert environment experience.

Convinced that such packaging would help the entire region, including Del Rio, he said that all the ingredients are present, but unconnected — airline service, ground transportation, lodging, food service, tours, and on-site programs.

"There's money out there to put together those kinds of tourism-based programs," Gonzalez assured.

Boyd and Gonzalez pledged to continue their discussions.

Gonzalez proposed that they meet every two weeks.

The pair's next topic may explore possibilities for an international rock art conference in Del Rio, bringing scholars and researchers together to see what Boyd called "one of Texas' best kept secrets."