Coming up Tues., June 10 on the Quanah Parker Trail: Charles A. Smith will install QPT Arrows for: Roaring Springs Ranch Club in Motley County 9 a.m., outside of the gate of the Roaring Springs Ranch Cub located at 1001 FM 3203, Roaring Springs, TX 79256 and for 1:00 p.m., Wayside, Texas in Armstrong County at the Wayside Community Church located near to street address #8471 on FM 285 Wayside, TX, 79094 Wayside is located SE of Palo Duro State Park. Both areas have a considerable Indian history and association with the Comanches and the last nomadic days of Quanah Parker and his Kwahada band out on the Texas High Plains: 1. Roaring Springs: The Roaring Springs that have flowed here for thousands of years are still present today. The area was chosen as a favorite camp site by Comanches and Indians long before them. On April 29, 1875 Dr. J.J. Sturm was led to this site by his three Comanche guides, Wild Horse, Habbywake, and Toviah, as they traveled SW from Fort Sill, OK and onto the Texas High Plains in order to find Quanah Parker and deliver to him General Ranald Mackenzies surrender orders. Near to the Roaring Springs, the three Comanches and Sturm encountered the camp of Comanche chief Black Beard with fifteen to twenty lodges on site, and joined him there to camp nearby. This is documented by Sturm in Notes on Travel in Search of the Quah-de-ru band of Comanches, written in 1875, and archived as a manuscript at the National Archives. Historian Ernest Wallace cited Sturm;s account in his own article, The Journal of Ranald S. Mackenzies Messenger to the Kwahadi Comanches, Red River Valley Historical Review, 3, no. 2 (1978), 227-246. The springs of Roaring Springs Ranch Club can be viewed in photos posted on the Roaring Springs Ranch Club Web site at: rsrc.org/Pool%20and%20Spring%20Photos.asp As the Roaring Springs are located on privately owned land, the arrow is being installed outside the gate where in time a QPT granite marker will be placed, so that both arrow and marker can be viewed by the public. 2. Wayside: The Wayside community arrow is sponsored by its EMS team. Despite the fact that Texasescapes lists Wayside as a ghost town, six very much alive and pleased non-ghosts met me on Friday, June 6, when I delivered their QPT granite marker finished by Wallace Monument for them to have in time for their arrow installation on Tuesday! Interestingly, this very prescient group of advocates, sensitive to the values inherent to American Indian culture, had the foresight to ask in advance if it would be O.K. to place an arrow there, as they noted that the site on church grounds is located across the road from a small community cemetery. When that question was fielded to Don Parker, he advised that they send a few photos of the site. When they did so, and Don could see the site and the surrounding area, he felt that there would be no problem with the site, as it was located a respectful distance from the cemetery. In addition, Don noted that as his great grandfather Quanah Parker was the leader of the Native American Church, he felt that placing an arrow on the grounds of a small community Christian church was an entirely fitting and appropriate. Wayside is located 6 miles from the site where in 1874 the Comanches, Kiowas, and Southern Cheyenne battled Ranald Mackenzie in Palo Duro Canyon to preserve their nomadic way of life on the Texas plains. Frances Ferris, one of the advocates of the community for the arrow, submitted this additional information for the Press Release that we will put into circulation after their arrow is installed so that a photo might be included: ?Wayside has many historical connections to both recent and pre-historical Indians as evidenced by tepee rings at the head of Happy Canyon, numerous arrow heads found in the playa lakes, fields and pastures, as well as the painting under the falls at the head of Pleasant Canyon of a black Spanish bull and calf along with what appears to be a fire.? said Frances Ferris. She added, ?Old timers, Henry Hamblen, Joyce Lane, Joe Rogers and Melton McGehee told me that there were rows of tepee rings on both sides of Happy Draw where it becomes Happy Canyon at the falls but a lot of the tepee rocks on the north side were removed by a local resident without the land owner?s permission to use in a building foundation. My husband, Tom Ferris says there are still some tepee ring rocks in the thick mesquite trees there on the north side. There is one complete tepee ring opening to the east on the south side. On a visit to Texas, my half brother, Willard Clegg, went down into Happy Canyon and came back saying that he knew why the Indians came there. There was spring water and a white to clear form of rock, he called chert that could easily be made into arrows and scrapers. It definitely was not alibates flint.? Larry Stevens said ?My brothers, Barry and Terry, spent almost every Sunday afternoon down at the site in the Palo Duro Canyon where Mackenzie and his Fourth Calvary fought the Comanche, Kiowa and Cheyenne in 1874. The site and trail are just north of our place off County Road one. They came back with a lot of points and things they found? James Stockett, who initially started the Quanah Parker Trail designation for Wayside, noted, ?My Great Grandmother Susie Wesley McGehee and the old timers, referred to the creek where the battle occurred as Am-de-bus Creek but it is listed as Antibust Creek on Armstrong County maps. I think it runs into south Ceta Canyon just before that creek enters the Prairie Dog Town Fork of the Red River.? He also said, ?George Denny, who had a ranch that bordered the point where the troops and horses entered and came out with all of the captured horses, would occasionally lose a bull down in the canyon. He would go down to hunt the animal. One time he found a rifle stuck up in the ground. He was in a hurry and thought he would come back for it later. Many times he looked but never found it. ? Long time resident, Mackie Allgood, helped her Uncle Floyd Adams build a fence after County Road 8 opened near Pleasant Canyon falls. She said, ?We found a lot of Indian artifacts along that road and in the fence row. -- (Frances Ferris, via e-mail, 06-07-2014) Francess information adds credence to the speculation that indeed, many contemporary roads of West Texas today were overlaid on older Indian trails of the past, that after the Indians came to be used as cattle trails, freighter, stagecoach and pioneer wagon routes, and then auto highways. And so on June 10, 2014, we will salute the coming installation of QPT arrows #73 and #74 for Roaring Springs Ranch Club and Wayside! --Holle Humphries on behalf of the Quanah Parker Trail
Posted on: Mon, 09 Jun 2014 22:40:27 +0000
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