Palo Duro Canyon is a
canyonA canyon, or gorge, is a deep valley between cliffs often carved from the landscape by a river. Most canyons were formed by a process of long-time erosion from a plateau level. The cliffs form because harder rock strata that are resistant to erosion and weathering remain exposed on the valley walls...
system of the
Caprock EscarpmentThe Caprock Escarpment is a geographical transition point in Texas between the High Plains/Llano Estacado to the west and the North Central Plains to the east. The escarpment stretches around 320 km south-southwest from the northeast corner of the Texas Panhandle near the Oklahoma border...
in the
PanhandleThe Texas Panhandle is a region of the U.S. state of Texas consisting of the northernmost 26 counties in the state. The panhandle is a rectangular area bordered by the state of New Mexico to the west and the state of Oklahoma to the north and east...
of
TexasTexas is the second-largest U.S. state in both area and population, and the largest state in the contiguous United States.The name had wide usage among native Americans, meaning "friends" or "allies"...
(
USAThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
). As the second largest canyon in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, it is roughly 120 miles long and has an average width of 6 miles, but reaches a width of 20 miles at places. Its maximum depth is 800 feet. Palo Duro Canyon has been called "The Grand Canyon of Texas," both for its size and for the dramatic geological features, including the multicolored layers of rock and steep
mesaA mesa is an elevated area of land with a flat top and sides that are usually steep cliffs. It takes its name from its characteristic table-top shape. It is a characteristic landform of arid environments, particularly the southwestern United States...
walls similar to those in the
Grand CanyonThe Grand Canyon is a steep-sided gorge carved by the Colorado River in the United States in the state of Arizona. It is largely contained within the Grand Canyon National Park, one of the first national parks in the United States...
.
The canyon was formed by the Prairie Dog Town Fork of the
Red RiverThis page is about the tributary of the Mississippi River; for the tributary of Lake Winnipeg, see the Red River of the North.
The Red River, or sometimes The Red River of the South, is a major tributary of the Mississippi and Atchafalaya Rivers located in the United States of America. The...
which winds along the relatively flat Caprock of
West TexasWest Texas is a region in the southwestern United States that primarily encompasses the arid and semi-arid lands in the western portion of the state of Texas....
.
Palo Duro Canyon is a
canyonA canyon, or gorge, is a deep valley between cliffs often carved from the landscape by a river. Most canyons were formed by a process of long-time erosion from a plateau level. The cliffs form because harder rock strata that are resistant to erosion and weathering remain exposed on the valley walls...
system of the
Caprock EscarpmentThe Caprock Escarpment is a geographical transition point in Texas between the High Plains/Llano Estacado to the west and the North Central Plains to the east. The escarpment stretches around 320 km south-southwest from the northeast corner of the Texas Panhandle near the Oklahoma border...
in the
PanhandleThe Texas Panhandle is a region of the U.S. state of Texas consisting of the northernmost 26 counties in the state. The panhandle is a rectangular area bordered by the state of New Mexico to the west and the state of Oklahoma to the north and east...
of
TexasTexas is the second-largest U.S. state in both area and population, and the largest state in the contiguous United States.The name had wide usage among native Americans, meaning "friends" or "allies"...
(
USAThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
). As the second largest canyon in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, it is roughly 120 miles long and has an average width of 6 miles, but reaches a width of 20 miles at places. Its maximum depth is 800 feet. Palo Duro Canyon has been called "The Grand Canyon of Texas," both for its size and for the dramatic geological features, including the multicolored layers of rock and steep
mesaA mesa is an elevated area of land with a flat top and sides that are usually steep cliffs. It takes its name from its characteristic table-top shape. It is a characteristic landform of arid environments, particularly the southwestern United States...
walls similar to those in the
Grand CanyonThe Grand Canyon is a steep-sided gorge carved by the Colorado River in the United States in the state of Arizona. It is largely contained within the Grand Canyon National Park, one of the first national parks in the United States...
.
The canyon was formed by the Prairie Dog Town Fork of the
Red RiverThis page is about the tributary of the Mississippi River; for the tributary of Lake Winnipeg, see the Red River of the North.
The Red River, or sometimes The Red River of the South, is a major tributary of the Mississippi and Atchafalaya Rivers located in the United States of America. The...
which winds along the relatively flat Caprock of
West TexasWest Texas is a region in the southwestern United States that primarily encompasses the arid and semi-arid lands in the western portion of the state of Texas....
. Water
erosionErosion is a gravity driven process that moves solids in the natural environment or their source and deposits them elsewhere...
over the millennia has been aided by wind erosion to shape the canyon's geological formations.
Notable canyon formations include caves and hoodoos. One of the best known features of the canyon is the Lighthouse hoodoo. A multi-use six-mile round trip loop trail is dedicated to the formation. The middle portion of the trail can be hot with little shade, and hikers should take plenty of water.
The painter
Georgia O'KeeffeGeorgia Totto O'Keeffe was an American artist. Born near Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, O'Keeffe was a major figure in American art from the 1920s. She received widespread recognition for her technical contributions, as well as for challenging the boundaries of modern American artistic style...
who lived in nearby
AmarilloAmarillo is the 14th-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas, the largest in the Texas Panhandle, and the seat of Potter County. A portion of the city extends into Randall County. The population was 173,627 at the 2000 census. The Amarillo metropolitan area has an estimated population of...
and
CanyonCanyon is a city in Randall County, Texas, United States. The population was 12,875 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Randall County. It is the home of West Texas A&M University and Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum. Palo Duro Canyon State Park is some twelve miles east of Canyon...
early in the 20th century, wrote of the Palo Duro: "It is a burning, seething cauldron, filled with dramatic light and color."
History
The first evidence of human habitation of the canyon dates back approximately 10,000–15,000 years, and it is believed to have been continuously inhabited to the present day.
Native AmericansNative Americans in the United States is the phrase that describes indigenous peoples from North America now encompassed by the continental United States, including parts of Alaska and the island state of Hawaii. They comprise a large number of distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of...
were attracted to the water of the Prairie Dog Town Fork of the Red River, as well as the consequent ample game, edible plants, and protection from weather that the canyon provided.
The first European explorers to discover the canyon were members of the
Coronado expeditionFrancisco Vázquez de Coronado y Luján was a Spanish conquistador, who visited New Mexico and other parts of what are now the southwestern United States between 1540 and 1542...
, who visited the canyon in 1541. Apache Indians lived in Palo Duro at the time, but they were later displaced by
ComancheThe Comanche are a Native American ethnic group whose range consisted of present-day eastern New Mexico, southern Colorado, northeastern Arizona, southern Kansas, all of Oklahoma, and most of northwest Texas. Originally, the Comanches were hunter-gatherers, with a typical Plains Indian culture....
and
KiowaThe Kiowa are a nation of American Indians who migrated from what now is Canada to their present location in Southwestern Oklahoma. Today the Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma is federally recognized, with approximately 14,000 members...
tribes, who had the advantage of owning
horseThe horse is a hoofed mammal, a subspecies of one of seven extant species of the family Equidae. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, single-toed animal of today...
s brought over by the Spanish. They had contact with traders in nearby
New MexicoNew Mexico is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. Inhabited by Native American populations for many centuries, it has also been part of the Imperial Spanish viceroyalty of New Spain, part of Mexico, and a U.S. territory. Among U.S...
, called Comancheros.
A United States military team under Captain
Randolph B. MarcyRandolph Barnes Marcy was a career officer in the United States Army, achieving the rank of Brigadier General before retiring in 1881....
mapped the canyon in 1852 during their search for the headwaters of the Red River. The land remained under American Indian control until a military expedition led by
ColonelColonel is a military rank of a commissioned officer, with corresponding ranks existing in almost every country in the world. It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...
Ranald S. MackenzieRanald Slidell Mackenzie was a career United States Army officer and general in the Union Army during the American Civil War, described by General Ulysses S. Grant as its most promising young officer...
was sent in 1874 to remove the Indians to reservations in
OklahomaOklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,617,316 residents in 2007 and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...
. In a lucky coup, the Mackenzie expedition was able to capture thousands of the Indians' horses and destroy them in nearby Tule Canyon. Demoralized and denied their main weapon and source of livelihood, the Comanche and Kiowa conceded and left the area.
Soon after, in 1876,
Charles GoodnightCharles Goodnight was a cattle rancher in the American West, perhaps the best known rancher in Texas. He is sometimes known as the "father of the Texas Panhandle." Essayist and historian J...
established the
JA RanchThe JA Ranch, jointly founded by John George Adair and Charles Goodnight, is the oldest privately owned cattle operation in the Palo Duro Canyon section of the Texas Panhandle southeast of Amarillo. At its peak size in 1883, the JA, still run by descendants of the Adair family, encompassed some of...
in Palo Duro Canyon. Over the next half century, the canyon remained in private hands, but was an increasingly popular tourist spot for local residents. In 1934, the upper section of the canyon was purchased by the State of Texas and turned into the 20,000-acre Palo Duro Canyon State Park. Amarillo is the largest city near Palo Duro Canyon State Park, but the smaller city of
CanyonCanyon is a city in Randall County, Texas, United States. The population was 12,875 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Randall County. It is the home of West Texas A&M University and Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum. Palo Duro Canyon State Park is some twelve miles east of Canyon...
is nearer.
In the
Frontiersman Camping FellowshipThe Frontiersmen Camping Fellowship is a program of the Royal Rangers, and serves as their service/honor organization, similar to the Boy Scouts of America's Order of the Arrow. It endeavors to develop in each member the same courageous and undaunted spirit of the early frontiersman...
of
Royal RangersRoyal Rangers is a worldwide ministry of the Assemblies of God and is designed to provide young boys with challenging activities while providing them with Christian instruction. A camping theme is at the heart of most activities, along with a merit award system whereby Royal Rangers must...
, the West Texas District is known as the Palo Duro Chapter because of the importance of the canyon in the history of the region.
Geology
Palo Duro Canyon itself was
downcutDowncutting, also called erosional downcutting or downward erosion or vertical erosion is a geological process that deepens the channel of a stream or valley by removing material from the stream's bed or the valley's floor. How fast downcutting occurs depends on the stream's base level, which is...
by the Prairie Dog Town Fork of the Red River during the
PleistoceneThe Pleistocene is the epoch from 2.588 million to 12 000 years BP covering the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....
, when the whole region was uplifted. Most of the strata visible in the Canyon were deposited during the
PermianThe Permian
[The term "Permian" was introduced into geology in 1841 by Sir Sir R. I. Murchison, president of the Geological Society of London, who identified typical strata in extensive Russian explorations undertaken with Edouard de Verneuil; Murchison asserted in 1841 that he named...]
and
TriassicThe Triassic is a geologic period and system that extends from about 251 to 199 Ma . As the first period of the Mesozoic Era, the Triassic follows the Permian and is followed by the Jurassic. Both the start and end of the Triassic are marked by major extinction events...
periods. From oldest to youngest, the formations are as follows:
- Quartermaster Formation: Permian in age, this comprises the red, lower slopes of the Canyon. This layer was deposited in a shallow marine environment that alternated with dry tidal flats, indicated by ripple marks
In geology, ripple marks are sedimentary structures that were deposited in a flow. that indicate agitation by water or wind. Ripple marks formed by water consist of two basic types:...
and gypsumGypsum is a very soft mineral composed of calcium sulfate dihydrate, with the chemical formula CaSO
4·2H
2O.-Crystal varieties:...
evaporiteEvaporites are water-soluble mineral sediments that result from the evaporation of bodies of surficial water. Evaporites are considered sedimentary rocks.- Formation of evaporite rocks :...
deposits, respectively.
- Tecovas Formation: Part of the Dockum Group
The Dockum is a Late Triassic geologic group found primaraly on the Llano Estacado of western Texas and eastern New Mexico with minor exposures in southwestern Kansas, eastern Colorado, and Oklahoma panhandle. The Dockum reaches a maximum thickness of slightly over 650 m but is usually much thinner...
with the Trujillo Formation, this multicolored Triassic unit consists of shaleShale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock composed of flakes of clay minerals and tiny fragments of other minerals, especially quartz and calcite. The ratio of clay to other minerals is variable...
, siltstoneSiltstone is a sedimentary rock which has a composition intermediate in grain size between the coarser sandstones and the finer mudstones and shales.- Description :...
, and sandstoneSandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains. Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any color, but the most common colors are tan, brown, yellow,...
. Deposited in streams and swamps, its colors indicate varying oxidizing conditions, and the alternating dry / wet cycles typical of such environments. These rocks are fossiliferous, containing the remains of phytosaurPhytosaurs - family Phytosauridae or Parasuchidae - were a group of large semi-aquatic predatory archosaurs that flourished during the Late Triassic period...
s, amphibians, and fishA fish is any aquatic vertebrate animal that is typically ectothermic , covered with scales, and equipped with two sets of paired fins and several unpaired fins...
.
- Trujillo Formation: This Triassic formation is harder than the underlying Tecovas, and forms many of the Canyon's ledges. Composed of coarse sandstone, river cross-bedding
In geology, cross-bedding refers to inclined sedimentary structures in a horizontal unit of rock. These tilted structures are deposits from bedforms such as ripples and dunes, and they indicate that the depositional environment contained a flowing fluid...
indicates deposition in a stream environment. Fossils are rare.
- Ogallala Formation: This late Miocene
The Miocene is a geological epoch of the Neogene period and extends from about 23.03 to 5.33 million years before the present . The Miocene was named by Sir Charles Lyell. Its name comes from the Greek words and and means "less recent" because it has 18% fewer modern sea invertebrates than the...
to early PlioceneThe Pliocene epoch is the period in the geologic timescale that extends from 5.332 million to 2.588 million years before present....
unit forms the cliffs and ledges at the very top of the Canyon. Composed of sandstone, siltstone, and conglomerateA conglomerate is a rock consisting of individual clasts within a finer-grained matrix that have become cemented together. Conglomerates are sedimentary rocks consisting of rounded fragments and are thus differentiated from breccias, which consist of angular clasts...
eroded from a late CenozoicThe Cenozoic Era The Cenozoic (also Cænozoic or Cainozoic) Era The Cenozoic (also Cænozoic or Cainozoic) Era (meaning "new life" (Greek (kainos), "new", and (zoe), "life"), is the most recent of the three classic geological eras and covers the period from 65.5 million years ago to the...
uplift of the Rocky MountainsThe Rocky Mountains are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in Canada, to New Mexico, in the United States. The range's highest peak is Mount Elbert in Colorado at above sea level...
, it is separated from the lower Trujillo Formation by a disconformity, and a very long hiatus. Fossils of saber-toothed cats (SmilodonSmilodon , often called saber-toothed cat or saber-toothed tiger, is an extinct genus of the subfamily machairodontine saber-toothed cats endemic to North America and South America living from the Early Pleistocene through Lujanian stage of the Pleistocene epoch , existing for approximately 1.790...
), bone-crushing dogs (BorophaginesBorophagus is an extinct genus of the subfamily Borophaginae, a group of canids endemic to North America from the early Miocene epoch through the Zanclean stage of the Pliocene epoch 23.3—3.6 Mya. Borophagus existed for approximately .-Overview:Borophagus, like other borophagines, are loosely...
), mastodons, horses, long-necked camels (AepycamelusAepycamelus is an extinct genus of camelid, formerly called Alticamelus which lived during the Miocene 20.6-4.9 Ma existing for approximately ....
), rhinocerosRhinoceros , often colloquially abbreviated rhino, is a name used to group five extant species of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. Two of these species are native to Africa and three to southern Asia. Three of the five species—the Javan, Sumatran and Black Rhinoceros—are...
es, and tortoises are present in the Ogallala.
The musical "Texas"
During the summer tourist season, the Paul Green historical musical drama
Texas is presented in the Pioneer Amphitheater of Palo Duro Canyon. The 2009 season runs from June 5 to August 15.
Texas is the official state play. It depicts the life of the pioneers of the Texas Panhandle during the latter
19th centuryThe 19th century was a period in history marked by the collapse of the Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Ottoman, Holy Roman and Mughal empires...
. There are special effects, music and dance against the canyon walls. A barbecue dinner is served before the show, which has been performed annually since 1966.
See also
- Battle of Palo Duro Canyon
The Battle of Palo Duro Canyon was a significant U.S. victory that brought about the end of the Red River War.-Background:Ever since the summer of 1874 the Comanches, Cheyenne and Kiowas had sought refuge in Palo Duro Canyon in the Texas panhandle. There they had been stockpiling food and supplies...
- Geology of Texas
Texas contains a great variety of geologic settings. The state's stratigraphy has been largely influenced by marine transgressive-regressive cycles during the Phanerozoic, with a lesser but still significant contribution from late Cenozoic tectonic activity, as well as the remnants of a Paleozoic...
- Mount Blanco
Mount Blanco is a small white hill — an erosional remnant — located on the eastern border of the Llano Estacado within Blanco Canyon in Crosby County, Texas. It is the type locality of the Blanco Formation and Blancan Fauna, which occurs throughout North America...
- Ogallala Aquifer
The Ogallala Aquifer, also known as the High Plains Aquifer, is a vast yet shallow underground water table aquifer located beneath the Great Plains in the United States...
External links