Tower Hill, a Favorite stopover on the Comanche War Trail to Mexico

 Tower Hill is a prominent landmark some five miles south of Sterling City, Texas. Local residents have long known of and wondered about the origins of man-made piles of rocks on top of this hill. With no known oral or written history, lore developed that this might have represented a forgotten fort of some kind. The mystique of Tower Hill increased when a burial of what was thought to be a Comanche chief was found in a hidden cave at the base of the hill, along with a number of accompanying artifacts. This article will describe research that reveals the route of the Comanche War Trail between two well known locations on this trail — Big Spring on the Colorado River and Horseshoe Crossing of the Pecos River. Tower Hill was a favorite campsite along this trail, used by raiders as they went to and from Mexico, and for their families who often remained for months at locations like Tower Hill while their men wreaked havoc in Mexico.

Tower Hill on the Comanche War Trail 

Bison Jump Sites in Texas

 

    Native Americans hunted bison in many different ways.  One of the most unusual is called a bison jump.  This is where they caused a herd of bison to stampede over a cliff, killing many as they fell to the ground below.  Although rare, when the right conditions of geography, herd location, etc. existed this carefully planned method could produce an abundance of food which could be dried (jerked) and kept for future use.

    Texas has three known bison jump sites, ranging in time from Paleo-Indian days to historic times.  These sites are described in the following document.

Bisin Jump Sites in Texas  

Peopling the Americas

 Humans are relative late-comers to the Americas. Archaeological and DNA discoveries

during the past decade has presented strong evidence that the first humans were here at least

22,000 years ago, and that they came from Siberia, along the Bering Sea and Northeast Pacific

coast.  This article describes the details of how we know this happened.

Peopling the Americas 

The Small Alamo Cannons: swivels and esmeriles

  Three small iron cannons of one-pounder caliber and less were brought to the Alamo around 1762 and mounted over the main gate for defense against a feared Indian attack.  All three remained in San Antonio through 1836.  One was mounted on the roof of the convent and used by the Texans in the 1836 battle.  All three were buried by the departing Mexican army after the battle.  All three were subsequently rediscovered and two are in the Alamo collection today. 

Click here to read about the fascinating history of these three guns.

          The small Alamo cannons  

Missing Cannons Buried Near the Alamo

 

    Six iron 8-pounder cannons were delivered by sea to the La Bahia presidio on the Guadalupe River around 1747.  They were moved to the new location at Goliad in 1749 and appear in several inventories there.  They were moved to San Antonio around 1795 and were noted at that location on several occasions up to and including February, 1835.  They were apparently moved into the Alamo compound during September, 1835, as the Mexican army prepared for the Siege of Bexar, and are lost to the historical record after that.  Some accounts suggest they were left on the ground after the Mexican army departed in May of 1836, and later moved to Sam Maverick's property at the former northwestern corner of the Alamo compound, and buried there.  They have not been discovered, and likely remain buried at that location today.

Missing Cannons buried near the Alamo 

The Bidai and the Coushatta, and Their Trails in Texas

The Bidai were a distinct tribe of Native Americans of broad Atakapan cultural and linguistic stock who, when first encountered by Europeans, were primarily located along the central Trinity River in Texas.  They were among the oldest of the Texas tribes, part of the Mossy Grove Tradition that has been traced back at least 2,000 years.  The Bidai were the most inland, western and northern located of the Atakapan subgroups; others such as the Akokisa and Atakapan proper lived in the coastal region between the Brazos and Achafalaya Rivers.  Bidai commonly visited and traded with other friendly tribes, both among their Atakapan cousins and others, principally the Hasanai or Tejas, who were a subgroup of Caddoan peoples living in eastern Texas near the Angelina River.

The Coushattas and their cousins the Alabamas were originally Eastern Woodland tribes allies within the Upper Creek Confederacy and spoke a Muskogean dialect.  The Alabama tribe first appeared in the historical record in 1541, when they are mentioned in the DeSoto expedition.  Both tribes migrated to Alabama where, in 1714, they were living north Montgomery. They migrated into Louisiana in the 1760s, and by 1770 most lived on the east side of the Sabine River opposite Newton County, Texas.  Some moved to Texas in the 1780s, and at the invitation of the Spanish government most moved to Texas in 1805, living along the Neches and lower Trinity Rivers.

Both tribes developed a network of trails between their villages and the Spanish / American settlements with trading posts.  Click here to learn the details of the Bedai and Coushatta tribes, and their network of trails that later became major entry routes for American colonists moving to Texas.

The Bedai and Coushatta, and their trails in Texas 

 

River crossings and army camps, Columbus, Texas, 1836

  Columbus, Texas, was established in 1836, located on the strategic road built from San Antonio to San Felipe by Byrd Lockhart in 1828.   Key events of the campaign for Texas independence from Mexico played out on the Colorado River near Columbus between March and May of 1836.  There were two primary locations where the Colorado River could be easily forded at low water — Atascosito and Dewees’crossing).  Benjamin Beason operated a crossing service called a ‘ferry’ in which some kind of a boat, from canoe to launch to raft to flatboat, could be used to assist crossings.   

Click on the link below to learn about the road network and the several river crossings and army campsites that existed here in early 1836. 

            River crossings and army camps, Columbus, Texas, 1836