The Historic Black Lands of Texas, part 2

Early naturalists like Ferdinand von Roemer (1818-1891), and geologist R. T. Hill (1858-1941) described the Black Lands as one of the richest natural areas in all of North America. English naturalist Thomas Nuttall (1766-1859) was among the first trained botanists to describe the North American Great plains plant communities. On a journey out of Fort Smith Arkansas in 1819 - ultimately encountering the Black Lands just north of the Red River (east of present day Durant, OK) - he described many of the woody and herbaceous species we still associate with prairie country. The landscape through which Nuttall traveled supported scattered herds of bison, and the Indian tribes who utilized this resource. (In north central Texas, these mobile tribes would have included the Wichita, Comanche, Caddo, and Cherokee.)

Posted on March 7, 2020 10:23 PM by jbryant