Sheffield Texas in the Wilderness
Just west of the Pecos
It is April
now as I step outside and breathe in crystal clear dry air. It is 6:30
am. To
the east behind my home the sky is tinged pink against ultramarine and
jet. Is
pinkening a word or oranging? I ask myself this because that is how I
perceive
the action, occurring quickly before our sun breaks the eastern
horizon. I sip
my coffee and sense the stillness and the stirring.
To the west the sky is still jet. I
hear the doves calling to me from all around and to each other. I can
barely
make out the Texas and US
flags hanging limply and equally
on poles at the boot camp where I earn my keep. I
can begin to establish an outline of the mesa beyond the
boot camp.
The top of that and surrounding mesas seem lightly misted. How can they
be
misted in this dry air? The doves continue to call and court. Swallows
flit
through the morning sky having breakfast as the flycatchers sit idly
side by
side and watch. The bats retired before I arose. This part of Texas is a
deceptively empty land teaming
with life.
I hear the
sound of big diesels
from several miles away rolling to the south and to the north, carrying
brine
or maybe gravel. The day brightens quickly and the green oasis of my
yard
becomes visible as do pet baby agaves, aloe vera, and other assorted
plants in
the container garden, lovingly tended, upon my front porch. I get up
and go
inside and dress. I must go to work for now and earn a living so we can
play
later. My idea of play will be to construct a page on the area within a
20-mile radius of Sheffield.
We live in Sheffield
and play in the oasis of our state provided yard or we get in a white
1998
Dodge truck and head off in the wilds. We have a rather large deer
guard on
this truck, after hitting a massive buck our first November here.
Welcome to Sheffield
Sheffield
used to be a booming little spot, or so the Reverend says, and other
old
timers. That was before “they” put in Interstate 1-10. Before "they"
put in I-10, elements of the US army guarded the route west against the
Comanche at Fort Lancaster. Before that the Comanche harried the
horseless Apache up into the Davis and Chisos Mountains to the west and
south. Homo sapiens have lived in this region for at least 12,000 years
at times that were much wetter. You can still feel their presence.
The
interstate, a modern invention, is only a
couple of miles to the north of Sheffield as the turkey vulture flies
(crows are rare here),
but you have to drive 5 miles to reach the entrance. Our nearest town
with a
grocery store (Iraan- home of Ally Oop) is 18 miles further. Debbie
complains
because it is a 75 mile drive to the nearest Wal-Mart in Fort Stockton
(Pecos County Seat). I like to drive to FortStockton (formerly Comanche Springs
and the gateway to the Big
Bend National Park).
Seventy
four miles is nothing out here. Many ranchers have that many or more
square
miles under graze or deer lease.
Back to Sheffield where we have the boot camp, a
facility of the Texas Youth Commission, a post
office, three churches, two community centers, 70 or more individuals
with the
surname Rodriquez, or about 350 total citizens including the 100 or so
juvenile
offenders who live across the street from me, thankfully behind a
rather secure
fence. We also have an establishment that changes tires mostly for the
huge
brine trucks that roll through here daily. The proprietor drives a
Harley and
also sells gas at an exorbitant price as well as cold drinks, tobacco
products,
coffee, and candy. If you want something else you are out of luck. He
will sell
you the gas to get to Iraan.
This part of Pecos and parts of Crockett County
was the last portion of I-10 to
be completed because the region is so incredibly rugged. The engineer’s
dynamiting also chased off (temporarily) some of the larger animals
like black
bear and mountain lion. Guess what? They are back! The photo to the
right is from Lancaster Peak overlooking the country to the east of
Sheffield The blasting also
shut down
some of the underground watercourses or diverted them deeper so that we
now
have fewer natural springs. Where there is water however, and we do
treasure water
beyond oil or friendship, there is life and more life.
The
Pecos
River
is a few miles to our east. The Nature Conservancy protects another
treasure
called Oasis Ranch. About 23 miles to the south and open several times
a
year to the public, the Oasis Ranch
contains one of those springs I spoke of. Out of nowhere spurt
thousands of
gallons of water per hour. That is enough to create a clear fresh creek
that
feeds into Independence Creek that feeds into the Pecos and eventually
into Lake
Amistad.
The black capped vireo lives there and I saw one. The black capped
vireo is
extremely rare in this area and they don’t live just anywhere. Vireos
like the
big Live Oaks that thrive along a watercourse like Independence Creek.
This
is Debbie. We took a number of shots today, April 15th, from the
bridge. These are shots to the east and west respectively of
Independence Creek.
The water is so clear you
can see the minnows and other small fish darting around and the brush
provides good cover for all sorts of birds. This time of year you can
see early migrants and later there are migratory warblers heard,
mainly, rather than seen in this location. In the winter time I have
noticed ducks and other water fowl from this bridge. Both
Miriam and
Rio Grande turkeys must drink daily and they come here from the
surrounding mesas as do deer, raccoon, bobcat, foxes, and other
predators. More later.
© (copyright Michael A. Grimmett, Ph.D.,
webmaster@seeyouintexas.com)