Hueco Tanks National Historic Landmark Nomination
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARK NOMINATION NPS Form 10-934 (Rev 12-2015) OMB Control No 1024-0276 (Exp 01/31/2019) HUECO TANKS Page 1 United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service National Historic Landmarks Nomination Form 1. NAME AND LOCATION OF PROPERTY Historic Name: Hueco Tanks Other Name/Site Number: Hueco Tanks State Park and Historic Site, 41EP2 Street and Number (if applicable): 6900 Hueco Tanks Road No. 1 City/Town: El Paso County: El Paso State: Texas 2. SIGNIFICANCE DATA NHL Criteria: 6 NHL Criteria Exceptions: N/A NHL Theme(s): I. Peopling Places 3. migration from outside and within 4. community and neighborhood III. Expressing Cultural Values 2. visual and performing arts Period(s) of Significance: Formative Period (1,800–550 BP) Significant Person(s) (only Criterion 2): N/A Cultural Affiliation (only Criterion 6): Jornada Mogollon Designer/Creator/Architect/Builder: N/A Historic Contexts: Aboriginal Precontact (Prehistoric) Archeology Paperwork Reduction Act Statement. We are collecting this information under the authority of the Historic Sites Act of 1935 (16 U.S.C. 461-467) and 36 CFR part 65. Your response is required to obtain or retain a benefit. We will use the information you provide to evaluate properties nominated as National Historic Landmarks. We may not conduct or sponsor and you are not required to respond to a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. OMB has approved this collection of information and assigned Control No. 1024-0276. Estimated Burden Statement. Public reporting burden is 2 hours for an initial inquiry letter and 344 hours for NPS Form 10-934 (per response), including the time it takes to read, gather and maintain data, review instructions and complete the letter/form. Direct comments regarding this burden estimate, or any aspects of this form, to the Information Collection Clearance Officer, National Park Service, 12201 Sunrise Valley Drive, Mail Stop 242, Reston, VA 20192. Please do not send your form to this address. NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARK NOMINATION NPS Form 10-934 (Rev 12-2015) OMB Control No 1024-0276 (Exp 01/31/2019) HUECO TANKS Page 2 United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service National Historic Landmarks Nomination Form 3. WITHHOLDING SENSITIVE INFORMATION Does this nomination contain sensitive information that should be withheld under Section 304 of the National Historic Preservation Act? _X_ Yes ___ No 4. GEOGRAPHICAL DATA 1. Acreage of Property: 860.3 acres 2. Use either Latitude/Longitude Coordinates or the UTM system: Latitude/Longitude Coordinates (enter coordinates to 6 decimal places): Datum if other than WGS84: NAD83 Latitude: Longitude: OR UTM References: Zone 13N Easting Northing A 400568 3532917 B 402086 3532749 C 402076 3530575 D 400558 3530599 3. Verbal Boundary Description: The boundaries of Hueco Tanks correspond entirely to the current boundaries of Hueco Tanks State Park and Historic Site, as indicated on the accompanying map ‘Hueco Tanks SP & HS’. Deeds further describe the original property as portions of Sections 9, 10, 15 and 16, Block 77, Township 1, Texas & Pacific Railway Surveys, El Paso County, Texas, described as follows: Tract #1 BEGINNING at the SW corner of Section 10, Block 77, Township 1, of Texas & Pacific Railway Surveys, El Paso County, Texas and THENCE North 0°34’ West 4800 feet along the West line of said Section 10 to a point and THENCE East 0°34’ North 4000 feet to a point and THENCE South 0°34’ NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARK NOMINATION NPS Form 10-934 (Rev 12-2015) OMB Control No 1024-0276 (Exp 01/31/2019) HUECO TANKS Page 3 United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service National Historic Landmarks Nomination Form East 4800 feet to a point on the South line of said Section 10 and THENCE West 0°34’ South 4000 feet along said South Section line to the point of beginning and containing 440.77 acres, more or less. Tract #2 BEGINNING at the NW corner of Section 15, Block 77, Township 1, of Texas & Pacific Railway Surveys, El Paso County, Texas, and THENCE East 0°34’ North 4000 feet along the North line of said Section 15 to a point and THENCE South 0°34’ East 2350 feet to a point and THENCE West 0°34’ South 4000 feet to a point in the West line of said Section 15 and THENCE North 0°34’ West 2350 feet along said Section line to the point of beginning and containing 215.79 acres, more or less. Tract #3 BEGINNING at the NE corner of Section 16, Block 77, Township 1, of Texas & Pacific Railway Surveys, El Paso County, Texas, and THENCE South 0°34’ East 2350 feet along the East line of said Section 16 to a point and THENCE West 0°34’ South 500 feet to a point and THENCE North 0°34’ West 2350 feet to a point in the North line of said Section 16 and THENCE East 0°34’ North 500 feet along the North line of said Section 16 to the point of beginning and containing 26.97 acres, more or less. Tract #4 BEGINNING at the SE corner of Section 9, Block 77, Township 1, of Texas & Pacific Railway Surveys, El Paso County, Texas, and THENCE West 0°34’ South 500 feet along the South line of said Section 9 to a point and THENCE North 0°34’ West 4800 feet to a point and THENCE East 0°34’ North 500 feet to a point in the East line of said Section 9 and thence South 0°34’ East 4800 feet along the East line of said Section 9 to the point of beginning and containing 55.10 acres, more or less. Additional acreage was subsequently added to the original Hueco Tanks property. This additional acreage is described as lying in and being a portion of Sections 9, 10, and 16, Block 77, Township 1 of the Texas and Pacific Railway Company Surveys in El Paso County, Texas, and being more particularly described by metes and bounds as follows: BEGINNING at a point which marks the corner common to Sections 3, 4, 9, and 10 of Block 77, Township 1 of the Texas and Pacific Railway Company Surveys, said point being marked by a 2-inch diameter pipe and being the Point of Beginning of the parcel being described; THENCE from said Point of Beginning East along the line common to said Sections 3 and 10 a distance of 2478.46 feet to a point marked by a monument with a brass cap marked No. 7; THENCE South 30° 00’ East a distance of 551.69 feet to a point marked by a monument with a brass cap marked No. 8; THENCE West a distance of 3250.00 feet to a point marked by a monument with a brass cap marked No. 2; THENCE South 0° 31’ 00” East a distance of 7150.00 feet to a point marked by a monument with a brass cap marked No. 1; THENCE West a distance of 500.00 feet to a point marked by a monument with a brass cap marked No. NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARK NOMINATION NPS Form 10-934 (Rev 12-2015) OMB Control No 1024-0276 (Exp 01/31/2019) HUECO TANKS Page 4 United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service National Historic Landmarks Nomination Form 5; THENCE North 0° 31’ 00” West a distance of 7627.78 feet to a point on the line common to Sections 4 and 9, said point being marked by a monument with a brass cap marked No. 6; THENCE East along the line common to Sections 4 and 9 a distance of 1000.00 feet to the Point of Beginning of the parcel being described and containing 121.709 acres. 4. Boundary Justification: While the Native American rock imagery at Hueco Tanks is confined to the igneous outcrops on the Hueco Tanks State Park and Historic Site, archeological deposits extend across much of the remaining 500 acres of level terrain at the base of the outcrops on the property that composes Hueco Tanks State Park and Historic Site, and which retain integrity. The entire State Park and Historic Site is a State of Texas Archeological Site, site number 41EP2. Evidence of the Formative period, the period of significance, can be found across the site. 5. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT AND DISCUSSION INTRODUCTION: SUMMARY STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE “Hueco Tanks State Historical Park is one of the most significant rock art sites in North America…..The rich legacy of pictographs, highly diverse, the early influence from Mesoamerica, the large number of masks that were precursors to the present day Pueblo katsina cult, and the unique geology require us to view and protect Hueco Tanks as a precious and sacred cultural resource, as important to southwestern prehistory as the Chauvet Cave [is to] France.” Dr. Kay Sutherland, Anthropologist, 19971 Hueco Tanks, also known as archeological site 41EP22, covers most of Hueco Tanks State Park and Historic Site in El Paso County, Texas. The site is located thirty-two miles northeast of the city of El Paso, Texas, in the northern Chihuahuan Desert. Though a single trinomial has been assigned to Hueco Tanks, the site includes 29 archeological localities with artifact deposits and 304 known rock imagery panels. Of these resources, 28 of the archeological localities and 147 of the rock imagery panels date to the Formative period (1,800–550 years ago), which also represents the period of significance (Goodmaster et al. 2017; Howard et al. 2010). As will be discussed, these resources reflect national significance under NHL Criterion 6 under the themes “Peopling Places” and “Expressing Cultural Values.” The cultural resources at Hueco Tanks are centered on four massive igneous hills that rise as much as 400 feet above the surrounding desert floor.