Editor s Note: This story was originally published March 2, 2018.
Today is Texas Independence Day. You might be already in full celebration mode, plunging candles into pints of Blue Bell, swigging Pearl in a can and picking beans out of chili. If so, carry on, you’ve got this.
But if you’re the sort who of person who passes by an elementary school and you are all . “wait, IS that Texas flag upside-down?” Read on, we are here to help.
Texas is large. That feller in Van Horn might not have a thing in common with this lady in Port Arthur. The hippies in Austin might not ever see eye-to-eye with the ranchers in Dalhart. But there’s a few things all Texans have in common a shared terra firma and you should know these things.
Quanah Parker Arrow Trail In Hansford County
The Comanche Indians once dominated vast areas of North America and yet, forced onto reservations, they left little record of their own story. Today a network of 22-foot-tall steel arrows by artist Charles A. Smith marks sites where the Comanches, and their last chief, Quanah Parker, hunted, traded, lived, traveled, and fought. Retrace the footsteps and hoofbeats of the “Lords of the Plains” as you honor their rich culture and history, and learn about a past that is written on the land.
What started out as a group of enthusiastic regional citizens interested in telling the fascinating story of Cynthia Ann and Quanah Parker turned into a public art and commemorative project to mark the sites of Native history in the former Comancheria. Since 2011, the Texas Plains Trail Region s Quanah Parker Trail Steering Committee has facilitated the research about these sites, and overseen installation of more than 70 arrows marking the nearly