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CHAPTER XIII Bee Rock Indian Camp Bee Rocks are two massive limestone bluffs that rise to an approximate height of two hundred feet above Leon Valley and overlook a large portion of that rich country. These rocks are about 4 miles southwest of Oglesby in Coryell County. They face west and extend for several hundred yards north and south. South Bee Rock has about a 250 yard face and commands the finest view of the Leon Valley. North Bee Rock is about the same elevation, but is very much longer. Great masses of limestone blocks, thrown down by the forces of nature ages ago, litter the steep slopes for halfway up; then there is a series of grottoes with perpendicular rising above. Separating the bluffs is a narrow rugged cove cutting back into the hill a quarter of a mile, which widens into a circular basin enclosed by massive cliffs of limestone. This cove is about 80 yards wide at its mouth. Some distance back, 3 narrow ravines some together, forming the drainage for the basin. All of the slopes are covered with massive boulders or brush. Following the left prong of the ravine, after a 150 yard climb up, we come suddenly to a large grotto or rock shelter. The cave is about 60 feet long, 6 to 12 feet wide with overhanging roof 3 to 6 feet high. On the floor, in the leaves and dust, were many small bones and fragments of larger ones. A little exploration revealed large beds of ancient ashes, in which scraps of flint, bone, and shell mingled. Shoveling out about 20 bushels of ashes very carefully, we found a dozen crude arrow points, a bone awl and several hammerstones. Since then, G. R. Green has found extensive ashbeds from which the remains of 3 human skulls, and a very fine arrow point 3 inches long, light, thin and serrated. Back down the slope at the mouth of the cove, is a space of about 2 acres strewn with scraps of shell, flint and other camp refuse. We located several burnt rock middens. The slopes of the hill, from the rock shelter -- 67 -- down, have a large showing of camp refuse and on the little plat, we found 40 excellent arrow points several blades and many mano stones, hammer stones and some scraps of pottery. We left 36 mano and hammer stones, piled upon a massive boulder. in another rock shelter, the remains of several humans and some spiral, fossil ivory beads were found. There are on the rugged hillsides, numerous places where the Indians mined flint. On the table lands above Big Bee Rock is a space of about 3 acres that is literally covered with flint chips and an occasional crude arrow point or flint blade is found. Dr. Clyde Bailey, on the Culpepper Bluff in a shelter, excavated and exhumed remains representing more than a score of human beings. These remains were sent to the Smithsonian Institute for scientific study. E. J. Thomasson excavated a smaller shelter in the west bluff of Station Creek and removed 13 skulls. Others removed 6 more. At Dripping Rock Shelter 3 skulls, some red paint pigments, several arrow points and a mortar were also some polished shells. In the face of the north bluff of a gloomy canyon, nature, in her travail of creation, cut into the solid rock hills, a rock shelter to a depth of 8 to 15 feel, with overhanging roof 8 to 10 feet high. This shelter is 60 feet long. Along the front of this shelter, for half its length, nature has cast massive stone blocks so that they form a sort of protecting wall. With two experienced men, assisted in excavating this shelter, where evidently, nature provided a home for many generations of primitive Americans. The ashbeds in this cave ranged from 2 to 6 feet deep. Finds in the cave were numerous finely finished flint artifacts, 20 bone awls, 20 polished shells, pieces of huckskin, paint pigments, grass matting, cord woven of cedar bark and grass fiber, also many mortars and many stones, some fragments of high quality pottery. Everything was powder dry to a depth of 6 feet. no cold north wind could penetrate no tornado from the west could disturb their nightly slumbers of they who made their home here. Only the warm sunlight could strike along the south edge of the exposed hill a little beyond the cave floor. At one point 4 skeletons were found. They had been -- 68 -- placed on the left side, face to the wall, an don top of each other until they were 4 deep. Six other skeletons were found, 3 of them folded in burial; 3 lying in the same shelter could not be explained by members of our party. There were no ornaments found, however, one very excellent soapstone pipe, of about 4 ounces weight, was found. One broken arrow shaft still held the stem of a broken off arrow. The dried and hardened sinew that still held the fragment of arrow was still bound just as the Indian had left it. Here primitive man poured out the longings of his soul, also, his thanks to the Great Spirit. Here, the Medicine Man, and the prophet, controlled the tribe by their weird machinations. Here in this, one of the most ancient of American homes, was held the councils that gave peace or war. Here the housewife, with her crude tinsels of bone, shell, stone and pottery, performed her household duties, and here old men wrought wonderful flint implements that were left as an unfailing record of the home life of primitive Americans.
CHAPTER XIV BAT CAVE Of all the treasure deposits, legendary and otherwise, found in the Coryell Hills, the Bat cave not far from Pidcoke is perhaps the most valuable. It's portal resembles somewhat the portals of those other mines that have inflamed men and women’s minds, but the treasure here is not gold nor any other metallic mineral. It is a treasure that if worked out and properly applied, will produce tangible results. It is the home of countless thousands of little hairy night prowling bats. In the early evening they may be seen faring forth to secure their food by catching the tiny insects that infest the night air. In the early morning, these may be seen returning by the thousands to their night dark homes, where they remain until darkness again hovers over the hills. -- 69 -- They have deposited countless tons of bat-guano, or bat dung, which is superlatively rich in chemical elements that go to enrich soil and make is produce luxuriant crops of vegetation. L. Kemp, who lived south of Gatesville near Bat Cave, tells some interesting stories about this cave. Once two men came to Mr. Kemp and secured a lease with a view of exploiting the bat guano deposit on a commercial scale. One car of guano was shipped to Fort Worth and Mr. Kemp heard no more of them. Other parties came from San Antonio, and estimated there were thousands of tons waiting to be mined. They leased it from Mr. Kemp, but due to a lawsuit, they were never able to return and work it. One year, Mr. Kemp kept a Mexican family on his farm. They were good workers, but when not working, they spent most of their time in and around the Rat Cave. One time a young Mexican came to Mr. Kemp with a collection of bones he had gotten in the cave, and they were human bones, and among them, a human tooth. That night, the Mexican dreamed the man to whom the tooth had once belonged, appeared to him and demanded that the tooth he returned to the place where it had originally been buried in the cave. Believing in the import of dreams, the young Mexican, in the early morning obeyed the command of the ghost man and took the tooth to its original resting place in the cave. The cave has been explored for several hundred feet and has been found to contain an unestimatable quantity of bat guano. Many sight seers go there, and many tourists. The cave has lost its lost mine stories, but it is most likely a cavern formed in the remote past, by the folding and buckling of the earths crust while it was taking final form. This place is on the outskirts of the Burnet-Piano uplift, where there are many caves, including the famous Longhorn Cavern near Burnet. -- 70 -- |
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