The Texas Panhandle

Lake Meredith, TX

In July of 2008 I went on my most exotic archaeology adventure to date. I may not be getting as much action lately, but what I do get is quality. Oh, the panhandle of Texas in July. An archaeology firm in Missoula, MT contacted me to be a crew-leader for a project based out of Fritch, TX. The gig was for the National Park Service and included the Lake Meredith National Recreation Area and the Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument. Our task (myself, the project director and two techs) was to relocated 204 previously recorded sites within three weeks and update the ASMIS database with photos and descriptions of erosion, pot hunting, recently exposed features, overall site condition, etc.

It was an all day flight down there and I finally arrived in Amarillo, delayed, near 11:00 pm. I met up with the project director, Shari, and we made our way towards the rigs we had rented for the adventure. One was a normal, black, jeep-thing and the other was the HMS Expedition, champagne color with leather and wood trim. I felt like P-Diddy or whatever he is calling himself these days, in case anyone still cares. Of course, I opted to drive the pimp-mobile, plus I think the size of it scared the hell out of Shari. I felt really funny in that thing. Very soccer mom, or daughter of oil tycoon.

We roll our rigs out to the tiny town of Fritch, 45 miles NW of Amarillo, and into the parking lot of the "Lone Star Inn". Wow. What a shocker that was. It was raining to beat a hurricane. I had to kick a large toad the size of cantaloupe out from the foyer as I rang the doorbell at 1:00am to wake up the poor Indian family sleeping inside. Once we make our way to our rooms, up the rain-soaked and rot-sagging staircase to the second floor, I go inside to wash my hands of the airport grime. Exhausted, I am mindlessly lathering away when out of the sink drain crawls a 3" scorpion. Holy shit. After killing it by crushing its little body in the sink stopper repeatedly, I proceeded to tear the entire bed and room apart to make sure he didn't have any friends. Did I mention that this place was a total dive? My air-conditioner unit was literally duct taped to the wall and there was a severely crusty poop-smear within the toilet bowl. Ed did make a good point when he said I was lucky to even have the air conditioner. There were also questionable stains on the sofa. I told myself it was just yogurt. We stayed there for a week and then transferred over to the Best Western in Borger, where life was grand. We suddenly had amenities such as wireless internet, a swimming pool, fresh, hot breakfast and cookies and iced tea in the lobby. Talk about paradise.

Everyday we drove out into the middle of nowhere and hiked in, looking for sites and recording attributes about the ones we could manage to relocate. The panhandle must be the Bermuda-triangle of Trimble GPS units, because we had 4 and none worked. Had to do it the old fashioned way. There were a lot of rattle snakes in the first area we went to. The habitat was just perfect....open with small sage and yucca and plenty of small mammals. All the wildlife encounters in the first few days was a bit too much to make you feel very comfortable at any one time. They say that everything, the plants and the animals, all want to stab, sting, bite or scratch you. It is hostile country. This 9-button rattler just about got me. It was sprawled out sunbathing when I came hiking along. I saw it and it saw me and as I turned around to run the other way, it reared up and came up to about my waist with its mouth completely outstretched. Then it coiled up and got busy to being angry.

The one that almost got me.

This incident took a few minutes off my life, I am positive. Extremely beautiful creature, though hard to appreciate when it wants to bite and preferably kill you.

Then we hiked through a gun range. Note the full-leg snake chaps borrowed from Arlene Wimer, the awesome park ranger we were working for. I wasn't taking any chances after the day before. It was in the 90-100 degree temperature range. Wearing those chaps took fortitude.

A K-car that had seen better days.

The topography and geology were gorgeous and the people I worked with were super cool, hard workers. We had some fun together. Working in the heat together by day and going to the same 3 crappy restaurants together by night. Borger night-life is hurtin' for certain, but there was one dive bar that had some cheap American beer during happy hour. Some of the characters in that bar were straight out of a stereotypical movie. No teeth, totally wasted, mullet, not forming complete sentences, making animal noises, hitting on you from across the room, while Kid Rock and Lynard Skynard play repeat on the jukebox. The 18 year-old waitress had what Jamie, my friend on the crew, called "hungry butt". Her short shorts disappeared in certain places. Sorry, I don't have a photo of that. There were even disgusting fly-swatters at the tables. Classic mid-west, the land of my people. But, I digress. Back to the real scenery.

Blue Creek Drainage- great for braffing, booty-stomping, getting stuck, whatever you want to call it.


Yes, this pretty little plant also has thorns.

Remains of a rock-wall alignment.

Hearth feature.

Bifacial scraper made of the beautiful and colorful Alibates Flint material.

Super-rad Arlene and the almost-as-cool Alibates Flint producing dolomite outcrops.

Turtle petroglyph.

Ungulate petroglyph and anthropogenically formed 'cupules', function unknown.

Clearly defined room with intact walls. This was part of a huge village near the petroglyphs.

Well, due to numerous complications, we fell short of our goal of 204 sites, but that didn't mean there was a shortage of terrain covered. It certainly wasn't because of a lack of effort. The things that held us up were out of our control. Such is life.

I had a really great experience and was lucky to see archaeology in a part of the country that I had not spent time in before. The high plains region is unique and beautiful. The archaeology resembles that of the four corners area, (material types, pottery, multi-roomed houses) but has distinct differences due to the plains influence (lower elevation and better bison habitat, among other things). And so, in spirit of some Texas lingo I picked up on this stint, I'm chucking the deuces to this entry.