the Horn Shelter

Terry has been working at the Bosque Museum on the new Horn Shelter exhibit for a few weeks. This exhibit is a real coup for Bosque County as it has the history of one of the oldest Paleo-American burial sites in the United States. Needing material for the display, we went to the actual Horn Shelter site this morning which is located in southeastern Bosque County. The great surprise was that we were met by Al Redder, the archaeologist who discovered and worked this site since the 1960's. After the work of gathering soil, shells, etc. for the display, Mr. Redder gave us a detailed history of his work. To have him point out the actual location he found the burial site compared to the shelter location was amazing. I asked the time differential from the people who lived in the cliff dwelling shelter compared to the burial site below which is 8000 years. Sam (photo) is carbon dated at over 10,000 years old. Mr. Redder also took us on a tour down the Brazos of other sites and caves. The Horn Shelter site is a fantastic location high above the Brazos river and some of the other sites had even more stunning terrain and views. One huge cave site had a running creek and pool of water which was absolutely beautiful. The walk was not easy through the brambles, boulders, and river bank, but what a wonderful opportunity to see sites so few people have ever seen.