Bryan daily eagle and pilot. [volume] (Bryan, Tex.) 1909-1918, 1911-07-10
.HUEcO TANKS NEAR il PAsO
An Interesting Spot on Account OF
Peculiar Natural Features and
Its Historical Associations.

In Ell Paso county twenty-six miles
from this city lies natural wonder
in rock formation and scenery that
would be widely famous il II We're
better known. The reference Is to the
Hueco tanks just at the base OF Cerro
Alto in the Hueco mountains. Rising
from the plain are great piled up
mas ses OF red boulders, some OF them
as big as a three-story house. The
boulders were no doubt formed orig
inally by disintegration from an IN
trusive, eruptive rock mass; but they
look now as If they had been piled
up from the ground rather than
broken down from an earlier solid
mass. In among the greatest boulders
have been formed caves. some OF
them quite deep, in which the cold
filtered rain water collects and stands
the year round, The great bowls or
pools ("hueco" means hollow in these
caves constitute the tanks" from
which the locality takes its name.
The locality in the early days OF
overland travel afforded the only i'm
portant watering place for human be-
ings and animals between the Cor
midas mountains and the Rio Grande,
distance of about sixty miles. AS
result the Hueco tanks became
familiar stopping place on the old In
dian trails and later necessary camp
and relay point for the overland
stages and mail route on the Butter
field road between st. Louis and San
Francisco, which crossed the Rio
Grande near what Is now Dona Ana.
The mountains in which the Hueco
tanks are situated were the scene or
number of sanguinary fights with In
dams. the last one in the late 7Os.
Some of the caves bear the marks OF
these conflicts in the still discernible
splotches of lead where bullets struck
the rocks.
All about the caves and the sur
rounding rock faces there are many
interesting picture writings and also
inscriptions by early immigrants and
soldiers. The writings by the immi'
grants and soldiers are dated more
than sixty years ago and yet they are
clearly discernible except where
thoughtless young people from r
Paso in years past have scrawled theii
names in enormous black and red and
white letters right over the tops Of
the historic paintings and writings
THAT can never be replaced. 1t is in
teresting to note such inscriptions as
ALEX Burden on way from Tennessee
to California, August ,, 1913, OF
Corporal Thomas A. Walter, Fourth
L. S. Dragons escorting train, June -
I1S49." The Indian pictures no douo
tell stories of conquest and proud eN
plolts that any student OF Indian lore
could readily decipher.
This most interesting natural won
der with its human documents ougn
to be preserved by Ell Paso county a
a public park forever. The waite
rights are now held by a ranchman
but his property rights could be &C
ouired and he could be secured in hi
watering privileges for stock art
fetal reservoirs have been created II
the canyons by constructing dams ant
there would lie no objection to allow
ling the continued use of these reser
voirs for stock watering. The mail
thing is that the whole Hueco TAM
locality ought to be fenced in ant
fully protected against depreda'ions-
a caretaker put in charge and TN
Mace kent as nearly as possible in it
original condition. Then with a goo
road to FL Paso 1t would become
lpopular resort and add greatly to tn
fame Of this city Ell Paso Herald.