Meyers Spring - Counting Coup Figure Museum of the Big Bend
Several public lands across West Texas offer the opportunity for visitors to view rock art sites . Within the Big Bend , Big Bend Ranch State Park and Big Bend National Park have accessible rock art sites . Elsewhere in West Texas , Hueco Tanks State Park and Historic Site , near El Paso , and Seminole Canyon State Park and Historic Site , between Langtry and Comstock , provide good opportunities to view other styles of rock art .
ings of varaious human-like figures , animal forms , geometric designs , and abstract images , were probably first painted by early agriculturalists from the Rio Grande valley near Redford , Texas during the Late Prehistoric period , over 500 years ago . These images continued to be painted until after the arrival of the first Spanish to the area in 1535 . One Big Bend Bold image on a site in Big Bend Ranch State Park includes what appears to be a helmeted figure on a horse with a Spanish saddle . Other historic pictographs were left behind by nomadic tribes , including the Comanche and Mescalero Apache , and possibly the Jumano . In the Big Bend , these historic rock art panels are most commonly identified by the presence of horse and rider figures that are differentiated from Big
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Bend Bold figures by their smaller scale and broader range of colors .
Some of the most recent pictographs in the Big Bend were probably created well into the 19th century , and were not actually painted on rocks . In 1849 , while searching for a suitable wagon road west from San Antonio , Lieutenant W . H . C . Whiting and his party discovered cottonwood trees along Limpia Creek , in Jeff Davis County , that were adorned with red painted figures . Whiting ’ s party camped at the location , giving it the name " Painted Comanche Camp ". Although the painted cottonwoods are long gone , the area is still known as Painted Comanche Camp .
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