Mile Canyon or more recently known as Eagle Nest Canyon is a tributary canyon of the

Rio Grande The Rio Grande ( and ), known in Mexico as the Río Bravo del Norte or simply the Río Bravo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the southwestern United States and in northern Mexico. The length of the Rio G ...

entering on the north side of the river just downstream from

Langtry, Texas Langtry is an unincorporated community in Val Verde County, Texas, United States. The community is notable as the place where Judge Roy Bean, the "Law West of the Pecos", had his saloon and practiced law. History Langtry was originally established ...

. Mile Canyon received its name due to its length being approximately one mile long. In more recent years, this canyon is more commonly referred to as Eagle Nest Canyon, named after a nesting pair of golden eagles observed nearby. It has been an important area of many archaeological and geological expeditions over the past century.

Environmental setting

Mile Canyon is found on the northern boundary of the

Chihuahuan Desert The Chihuahuan Desert ( es, Desierto de Chihuahua, ) is a desert ecoregion designation covering parts of northern Mexico and the southwestern United States. It occupies much of far West Texas, the middle to lower Rio Grande Valley and the lower P ...

Geomorphology

Archaeology

This canyon and its surrounding upland edge contains numerous sites ranging from dry

rockshelters A rock shelter (also rockhouse, crepuscular cave, bluff shelter, or abri) is a shallow cave-like opening at the base of a bluff or cliff. In contrast to solutional caves ( karst), which are often many miles long, rock shelters are almost alwa ...

to burned rock

middens A midden (also kitchen midden or shell heap) is an old dump for domestic waste which may consist of animal bone, human excrement, botanical material, mollusc shells, potsherds, lithics (especially debitage), and other artifacts and ecofact ...

to upland “

hearth A hearth () is the place in a home where a fire is or was traditionally kept for home heating and for cooking, usually constituted by at least a horizontal hearthstone and often enclosed to varying degrees by any combination of reredos (a lo ...

” fields. The canyon is primarily recognized for

Bonfire Shelter Bonfire Shelter is an archaeological site located in a southwest Texas rock shelter, near Langtry, Texas. This archaeological site contains evidence of mass American buffalo hunts, a phenomenon that is usually associated with the Great Plains hund ...

Kelly CaveEagle Cave
and other natural shelters that were used by Native Americans up to 13,500 years ago.

features a prehistoric bison jump, where wild herds of

bison Bison are large bovines in the genus ''Bison'' (Greek: "wild ox" (bison)) within the tribe Bovini. Two extant and numerous extinct species are recognised. Of the two surviving species, the American bison, ''B. bison'', found only in North Ame ...

were driven off the cliff edge by Native American hunters and died below. The bison were then harvested for clothing, food and tools. The jumps occurred as early as 9700 BC and as recently as 800 BC.Texas Beyond History: Bonfire Shelter
/ref> The canyon was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1970 AD. The historic district comprises a 1,500 acre (6 km²) area entirely on private land. In 2014, archaeological research was conducted on the many sites found within and around the canyon by a crew from

Texas State University Texas State University is a public research university in San Marcos, Texas. Since its establishment in 1899, the university has grown to the second largest university in the Greater Austin metropolitan area and the fifth largest university ...

. This research was part of a multiyear research design focused on the Lower Pecos Canyonlands called th
Ancient Southwest Texas Project.

References

External links

Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in Texas Canyons and gorges of Texas Landforms of Val Verde County, Texas Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Texas National Register of Historic Places in Val Verde County, Texas {{US-geology-stub

Environmental setting

Geomorphology

Archaeology

See also

References

External links