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Encircling the perimeter of the 50,000-square-mile
southern High Plains plateau given the
name El Llano Estacado by Spanish explorers is
an area that belies the common perception of
the Great Plains as a region of minimal topographic
relief. Popularly called the Caprock
Canyonlands, this is a brightly colored landscape
of red badlands, juniper breaks, and
sandstone canyons reaching a depth of 800
feet. This canyon country began to form a million
years ago when the westward-eroding Canadian,
Red, Brazos, Colorado, and Pecos Rivers
sliced into High Plains sediments washed
down from the southern Rockies. By 100,000
years ago the Canadian and Pecos had cut to
the base of the mountains, creating the Llano
Estacado plateau. The central trio of rivers,
however, has yet to breach the Llano Estacado.
It is their erosion into the plateau, a process
that continually exposes the water-bearing
gravels of the Ogallala Aquifer, that has formed
the present canyon systems of the Red River
(Palo Duro, Mulberry, Tule, and the Little Red,
Los Lingos, and Quitaque Canyons), the Brazos
(Blanco, Yellow House, and Double Mountain
Fork Canyons), and the Colorado (Muchaque
Canyon).
As sources of water, timber, exposed geology,
and often astonishing topography and
coloring, the Caprock Canyonlands has played
a critical role in human and natural history in
the Great Plains. The draws feeding the canyonlands were centers of Clovis and Folsom
cultures in the Great Plains, and the canyons
themselves were famous rendezvous sites in
the trade between Pueblo agriculturalists and
Plains buffalo hunters. Coronado was the first
European to describe them when he camped in
Blanco Canyon in 1540. In the nineteenth century
they served as the last sanctuary of the
Comanches, Kiowas, and Southern Cheyennes,
who were forced to reservations after the Battle
of Palo Duro Canyon in 1874. Charles Goodnight
proceeded to found his JA Ranch in Palo
Duro in 1876. The canyons have largely remained
in the hands of ranchers since.
In the twentieth century the Caprock Canyonlands played new roles in human society. The artist Georgia O'Keeffe's initial Western inspiration, for example, came from her encounters with Palo Duro during World War I. Preserving as they do the best remaining wildlands on the Southern Plains, since the 1930s these surprising canyons have increasingly been designated as state parks, wildlife refuges, and nature preserves of various kinds.
See also ART: O'Keefe, Georgia / WAR: Palo Duro Canyon, Battle of.