Hide Article Text (OCR)
AT LUBBOCK LAKE SITEMarker To Be DedicatedBy GERRY BURTONAvalanche-Journil StaffEl Punto de Agua — Point of Water for wanderers of the South Plains since the days of Early Man — comes into its own again Thursday when a Texas historical marker is dedicated for the Lubbock Lake Site.Truett Lattimer. executive director erf the Texas Historical Survey Committee, will be speaker at 4 p.m. ceremonies on the westbound service road of Loop 289 just east of the Clovis Highway.Bill Griggs, chairman of the Lubbock County Historical Survey Committee, noted that visitors could reach the dedication site easily by getting on the loop at North University or Quaker Avenue and leaving it Tor serv-nue and leaving it for the service road just short of the Clovis Highway overpass.The marker, paid for by Lubbock County, will explain the historical significance of the Lubbock Lake site which is partially visible from the service road. It will trace the story of thesite from the time ot the mammoth to modern man.Every Ttmo FoundEvidence of the presence or man — from 12,000 years ago to the present, from the mammoth to the beer can — has been found in one stratified 20-foot wall of dirt, the only known place that such a history of man exists. A similar site, called the Clovis site, has been destroyed.Proof that Early Man hunted prehistoric beasts that frequented the Point of Water has been found in the wall of history as well as signs of man hunting the animals of his time up to a century ago.Historians believe Coronado visited the lake In 1541 in his search for the Seven Cities of Cibola tnough there is no proof.However, El Funto de Agua appeared on early maps of Spanish Conquista-dores for three centuries before the Anglos discovered it. Spanish expeditions from Santa Fe to the Ju-mano Indians near San Angelo apparently used El Punto dc Agua. The lake curled in a bend of YellowHouse Canyon, so named by Spanish explorers who, at a distance, thought the yellow banks of the canyon to the west of the lake were cas-as amarillas” or yellow houses.Chased ThievesIn 1872 scouts of Col. R. S. Mackenzie chased thieves along the old route and discovered the lake for the Anglo world.By 1878 the lake had become a stopping place lor buffalo hunters.Early ranchers often told or seeing as many as 3,000 head of cattle watering at the lake after herds climbed out of the breaks of the Caprock and onto the high plains, replacing buffalo which had watered at the lake before the days of buffalo hunters.By 1881 George Singer of the Quaker settlement at Estacado had established a store at the lake. Nails from his store were found during excavation of the site.When Lubbock was established in 1890, historians say, the lake was deep and full and the Double Moun-Sec MARKER Page *
Newspaper Details
Avalanche Journal
Lubbock, Texas, US
Wed, Jul 19, 1972
Page 57
Full Page
Clipped by
Yuma C.
AZ, USA 13 Nov 2016
Other Publications Near Lubbock, Texas
Lubbock Avalanche
Avalanche
Avalanche Journal
Lubbock Evening Journal
Lubbock Morning Avalanche
