The Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument is a place where many peoples, the first Americans, gathered and crossed paths for some 10 or 11 thousand years to acquire flint for making arrowheads.
Arrowheads made from the Alibates quarries were found as far away as California and Minnesota, so this spot represents a significant trading outpost for the original Americans who brought abalone from California and furs from Minnesota to the many tribes that occupied the space around the quarries. Tribes from the Clovis period up until the reign of the Comanches in the Southwest sought the flint and some of these tribes served as resident tribes protecting the area. Standing on a bluff overlooking the quarries, it was easy to imagine how a resident tribe with a permanent settlement would have a difficult time defending their treasured flint from marauding tribes like the Apaches and Comanches.
Tiny arrows were used for buffalo because a smaller arrow could more easily get between the ribs for a lung shot. The Comanches, in particular, were outstanding horsemen and would ride up close and shoot the arrow down into the ribs of the buffalo. Larger arrows were used in warfare to intimidate and maim and injure rather than kill instantly. Comanche warriors were so skilled that they could shoot an arrow into the sky and then reload and fire 20 more arrows before the first arrow came to the ground.
Our experience at the Alibates Flint Quarries was made richer by Ranger Marty and Volunter Jimmy who both dropped a lot of wisdom about the people and landscape surrounding the area.
Jimmy is a retired maintenance supervisor from Amarillo College who learned to become a master knapper. Knapping is the process of shaping flint using stones. It comes from the German onomatopoeic sound that is made when stones hit the flint. Watching Jimmy work, you could see that he truly respected the craft of knapping and those who perfected the art before him. “A lot of the original cuss words were invented by knappers,” he told us as one of what was looking to be a perfect specimen upon which he’d been working for a couple of hours cracked awkwardly in a final detailing stroke of his knapping stone.
Ranger Marty put us in the minds of the original people who thousands of years ago saw bowling ball sized pieces of flint as far away as Tulsa and followed the Cimarron River, a sandy superhighway, up to the source: the mother lode of flint at the Alibates Flint Quarries. He also painted a picture of the landscape at that time, which had more springs. Today, ranching has slowly drained the Ogallala Aquifer and these springs have dried up. The land here has always been barren, arid and hostile, but the abuse of the water by present residents has made it even more so.
