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Dinosaur Highway
A History of Dinosaur Valley State Park
By Laurie E. Jasinski TCU Press
Copyright © 2008 Laurie E. Jasinski
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-87565-375-4
CHAPTER 1
The Changing Face of North Central Texas
The crystal green waters of the Paluxy River dance through a carved valley of limestone cliffs that rise above the stream. In the distance, cedar-clad hills profile the rugged landscape, checkered with broad grassy pastures tossed here and there like blankets. For decades the river influenced the lives of the valley's inhabitants with its currents both peaceful and destructive. The waters also exposed the secrets of the riverbed and conjured memories of a long-ago day by revealing dinosaur footprints in the stone—tracks of time. Today visitors splash and play and marvel along this ancient Texas trail that treads through a winding curve of the Paluxy River in a place called Dinosaur Valley State Park.
The park lies on both sides of the Paluxy in Somervell County about four miles west of Glen Rose. Located in North Central Texas about fifty miles southwest of Fort Worth, this park consists of 1,588 acres of river valley and former ranchland. A mild annual average temperature of 65 degrees and rainfall of 32 inches belie extremes in weather that folks have periodically witnessed. Summers sometimes suffer lengthy droughts that greatly reduce the flow of the Paluxy, while during winters, the region may see an occasional dusting of snow.
Geographically, Dinosaur Valley State Park and the Glen Rose vicinity fall within a transitional zone in the Lampasas Cut Plain, part of the Grand Prairies region of Texas. Nestled between the Eastern and Western Cross Timbers, historically the landscape held grassy prairies as well as hardwoods like oak, elm, pecan, walnut, and cottonwood along valley streams, with some groves of scrubby mountain cedar and blackjack. Rugged stairstep topography typifies the terrain, composed of layer upon layer of sedimentary rock. Much of this part of Somervell County consists of limestone of the Lower Cretaceous Glen Rose Formation.
Author John Graves, describing his own "Hard Scrabble" Ranch near the Paluxy, summed up the stark beauty that the territory offers. "To a layman who cares about country," he wrote in Hard Scrabble: Observations on a Patch of Land, "most of Somervell regardless of what the maps call it looks like a northern counterpart of the Texas Hill Country...." Indeed this Northern Hill Country, a land of transition with woods to the east and plains to the west, has served as a significant crossroads of travel and communication through the ages and ultimately a site of settlement and development.
Dinosaur Valley State Park holds a unique distinction in the Texas State Parks System. Clues to some of the ancient creatures that traversed the territory are literally set in stone here. The dinosaur tracks in the Paluxy riverbed and its tributaries tell of a very different landscape more than one hundred million years in the past, set in the Cretaceous Period of the Mesozoic Era. The Cretaceous Period stretched from approximately 144 to 65 million years ago and included the height of the reign of the dinosaurs.
During the Early Cretaceous, shallow seas alternately submerged and exposed the lands of North Central Texas. As the waters marched and retreated across the flat terrain, different sediments settled in a methodical process that would be evident in the abundant marine fossils discovered by curious hillside picnickers and Sunday explorers in modern times.
The region that would include the future park was part of a broad coastal plain whose edge advanced and receded over time to the ebb and flow of the waters as they gradually reclaimed and relinquished the shoreline. This seaside-scape offered inlet bays, offshore reefs, tidal lagoons, and salt marshes. A green prehistoric forest of conifers, ferns, and small flowering plants rose inland from the beach. And on a day, perhaps about 113 million years ago, "one day not lost to the past," wrote Louis Jacobs in Lone Star Dinosaurs, the ancient creatures walked across the coastal flats. Their feet sank into fine-grained limy mud—firm, but not too hard or too soft—and left perfect footprint impressions. The tracks were exposed long enough to dry and harden and then were quickly infilled and buried under gentle sediments, thus preserving this part of their journey. Millions of years later that "day" (or probably series of days) would live again when flooding river waters would scour away the various rock layers down to that particular stratum of Cretaceous rock, known as Glen Rose Limestone. Three-toed theropod tracks and large elephantine-like sauropod tracks formed an ancient trackway.
The carnivorous theropods of Early Cretaceous North Central Texas stalked along on two three-toed feet. Though paleontologists and ichnologists (those who study footprints and other trace fossils) cannot proclaim with total certainty the specific dinosaur, based on examinations of the prints and the discovery of fossil remains in Oklahoma and Texas, the Glen Rose tracks probably belong to Acrocanthosaurus. This intimidating meat eater left footprints up to two feet in length. Bird-like feet, tipped with sharp menacing claws, supported an imposing animal, perhaps thirty feet long nose to tail and weighing two to three tons. The mobile Acrocanthosaurus traveled an extensive range and used its tail as a counterweight to its large torso and head. The threatening carnosaur harbored deadly efficient serrated teeth and sported a bony ridge that covered the length of its spine. This distant relative of Tyrannosaurus was a formidable predator on the coastal plain.9
Four-legged sauropods also slogged over the ancient terrain. These animals (commonly called brontosaurs in the past) were herbivorous, and the most likely Paluxy track maker was probably Paluxysaurus. Paleontologists have excavated the fossilized bones of sauropods in North Central Texas, and in 2007 the new name of Paluxysaurus was proposed for these animals. The massive creatures, the largest of the Texas dinosaurs, could be fifty feet long and thirty tons in weight or more. The sauropod lumbered along on thickly padded shock absorbent feet—smaller, roughly horseshoe-shaped front feet and much larger, rounded, clawed hindfeet often thirty-six inches or more in length. The extended necks and large bellies of the plant eaters facilitated foraging on trees and other flora in their environment.
A few of the footprints left in the Paluxy riverbed have caused some speculation that they represent a third type of dinosaur, an ornithopod. These were also plant-eating creatures in Texas during the Cretaceous Period. Some of the three-toed prints resemble the ornithopod tracks found in other parts of the world but could also be eroded or poorly-preserved theropod tracks. With the lack of positive track evidence, paleontologists and ichnologists have not identified conclusively any tracks in the park as ornithopod in origin, although bones of ornithopods have been found in parts of Texas.
The sauropods and theropods traveled across the ancient plains of North Central Texas until eventually the ocean rose and claimed more territory inland. By one hundred million years ago, a great interior sea had flooded the heart of North America, essentially connecting the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic Ocean. This vast sea remained until approximately 66 million years ago, near the close of the reign of the dinosaurs.
Eventually the waters receded, and millions of years of geologic time shaped a new landscape. Layers and layers of sediment hardened. Like the tracks, trees of ancient forests had also been covered by sedimentary deposits and transformed over time into stony remnants, and the Glen Rose region would come to be known for its abundance of petrified wood. As natural forces sculpted the face of North Central Texas to its modern image, streams such as the Paluxy and the neighboring Brazos carved their way through hard and soft rock strata to chisel out winding limestone valleys through Northern Hill Country and stretches of prairie.
Historically seas of grasses—Big Bluestem, Little Bluestem, Indiangrass, Switchgrass, Sideoats grama, and Buffalo grass—swayed over the vast expanse, while varieties of oak, elm, cottonwood, pecan, and other hardwoods thrived in the wooded areas and along waterways. Herds of buffalo thundered south into the vicinity of Somervell County. The territory supported abundant wildlife such as turkeys, squirrels, pronghorn antelope, deer, opossums, rabbits, bobcats, wolves, raccoons, and black bears. The streams offered fish and mussels. The plentiful water and game would have been a natural attraction for human occupation and exploration.
Archeological evidence indicates that human activity in the region of the Paluxy River (part of the Brazos River basin) and the surrounding vicinity of North Central Texas may date as far back as ten thousand years. Scientific surveys of the area, however, have concluded that most evidence points to human occupation from the period of about AD 700 to 1200. These early inhabitants took advantage of rugged terrain and overhangs along the river valley that offered shelter for encampments. The region furnished abundant game, and freshwater mussels of the Paluxy and area creeks also provided a year-round food source. Buffalo hunters, agriculturalists, and gatherers probably intersected paths in this land of good water.
Unfortunately, no evidence or oral tradition exists to suggest that the early residents of North Central Texas observed any dinosaur tracks. Pictographs and petroglyphs are silent regarding the ancient monsters. If floodwaters scoured away the soft layers and sediments to reveal the stony footprints, Indians may have wondered at the curious giant turkey-like tracks that stretched before them. That possibility remains a mystery today.
The prehistoric peoples who traveled North Central Texas and the Paluxy River Valley were probably the ancestors of the Tonkawas of the historic era. The name tonkaweya, meaning "they all stay together," originated from a Waco term, and these autonomous bands of hunter-gatherers journeyed throughout Central Texas. The nomadic Tonkawas hunted buffalo, deer, and small game. Their inclusive diet, however, excluded wolves and coyotes, which held religious significance. The natural resources in and around the Paluxy offered a bounty of wild game, fish, and mussels as well as other foods. Tonkawas gathered native pecans and walnuts along the creeks along with wild grapes, persimmons, plums, haws, and honey. Somervell County historian W.C. Nunn wrote that the site of Glen Rose was purportedly a favored spot for the Tonkawas, who partook of the curative properties of nearby sulphur springs.
The Tonkawas fashioned crude, squat dwellings of buffalo hide and tree branches. Buffalo or deer skins made up their clothing. Men in particular adorned themselves with necklaces and earrings of bone, shells, or feathers, and both males and females practiced the art of sometimes elaborate tattooing and body painting, decorations that often drew remarks from later explorers and settlers.
In North Central Texas the Tonkawas were geographically situated at a crossroads of cultures. They often bartered with the Caddos to the east, who were agriculturalists (unlike the Tonkawas) and had an extensive trade network. The Tonkawas obtained various goods including pottery from the Caddos. To the west stretched the vast Texas plains—the extensive range of the buffalo—and eventually the extreme edge of Apache country.
Settlers and other Indian groups alike regarded the Tonkawas with scorn. Never large in number, the wandering Tonkawas frequently suffered hunger and destitution. Though they were often friendly with Anglos, pioneer accounts described them as filthy beggars. Their occasional practice of ritual cannibalism, designed perhaps to consume the power or soul of their enemies, evoked the ire and retaliation of other Indian groups and the disgust of frontiersmen. According to anthropology professor and author William W. Newcomb, Jr., the Tonkawas, perceived by early settlers as small and timid, did not attract the literary romanticism, savage loathing, and extensive commentary that other more formidable Native American groups engendered.
By the early 1700s Wichita groups had begun to move southward from Kansas to the Red River and into North Texas. The southern incursion of hostile Osages and Comanches probably precipitated this gradual migration of the Wichitas, who also sought to acquire horses farther south. The Wichitas were composed of four major groups: the Wacos, Taovayas, Tawakonis, and Wichita proper. All shared a common language, Wichita, linguistically connected to a Caddoan classification. Wichitas eventually settled in the vicinity of North Central Texas. The Waco and Tawakoni (or Tehuacana) groups headed farther south, and many Wacos resided primarily along the Brazos River.
Wichitas lived in villages of conical dwellings made of a framework of sturdy poles covered with grass. Though they hunted buffalo, they also practiced farming, and their gardens included corn, squash, melons, beans, pumpkins, and tobacco. The Wichitas based their division of labor on gender. The women cultivated crops and performed all the domestic chores, while the men devoted themselves to hunting and warfare. These people also practiced extensive tattooing. Their belief system attributed a soul or spirit to all things, inanimate as well as animate, and celestial bodies such as the Sun, Moon, and North Star represented gods and goddesses.
In the 1700s another noteworthy group gradually swept south into the North and West Texas plains. Nomadic bands of Comanches established dominance and displaced the Apaches, driving them farther south and west. These highly-skilled horsemen based their way of life on the buffalo. With the mobility afforded by the horse, they followed the seasonal migrations of the herds. Communal hunts were proud and festive affairs. The animals served as a chief food source, and their hides provided covering for teepees and clothing. Comanches used the buffalo horns for elaborate headdresses. In addition to buffalo, they also hunted black bear and small game and collected wild fruits, nuts, and roots to supplement their diet as well as to flavor meats.
Comanche society practiced the art of warfare and held its highest esteem for the young warrior who exhibited aggressiveness and bravery. In battle, they often measured success by the amount of plunder and number of scalps taken. They also attributed great prowess as a warrior to the aid of a supernatural power acquired from spirit creatures during a vision quest. Comanches engaged in frequent raids on other Indian groups and later on pioneer settlements. War parties decorated themselves and their horses with bold shades of red, yellow, black, or green paints to create colorful spectacles that evoked both fear and admiration in onlookers.
The Comanches had no centralized tribal head, but rather operated in smaller individual bands. A band known as the Penatekas, translated as "Honey-Eaters" or "Wasps," was the largest and best known group and rode through the hills and valleys of present-day Somervell County and its vicinity. Author John Graves wrote:
A man I know had a Comanche grandmother, captured by whites in childhood and raised by them, who had been born at a Wasp wintering place where the Paluxy runs into the Brazos in present Somervell County, and whose mother and grandmother had both been born there too.
The grass prairies and perennial streams provided a good wintering ground for their ponies, and the limestone bluffs offered shelter from stiff northers.
A prominent butte that the Comanches named que-tah-to-yah ("Rocky Butte") became an important geographical landmark for the Comanches and eventually explorers and settlers in North Central Texas. Known to pioneers as Comanche Peak, this geological feature rises 1,229 feet above sea level in Hood County about nine miles north of present-day Dinosaur Valley State Park and is the closest marker to the park that cartographers first noted on early Texas maps.
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Excerpted from Dinosaur Highway by Laurie E. Jasinski. Copyright © 2008 Laurie E. Jasinski. Excerpted by permission of TCU Press.
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