Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument

For thousands of years, people came to the red bluffs above the Canadian River. They came for flint so vital to their existence. Prehistoric people needed good raw material for tools and weapons and Alibates Flint was some of the finest. Demand for the highquality, rainbow-huedflint is reflected in the distribution of Alibates Flint through the Great Plains. Paleo-indians first discovered the colorful flint and used it for spear points. Nomadic groups of Paleo-indiansroamed the Plains from 10,000 to 6000 B.C. hunting large game animals such as a mammoth, camel, bison, and horses. Points and tools of Alibates Flint found with the skeletal remains of these extinct animals represent several Paleo-indian types. Perhaps these people sought the variegated flint as much for its beauty as its utilitarian properties. Painstaking care went intomany of their weapon tips; much more care than was necessary to produce a functional point.

The extinction of some of the large game animals signaled the beginning of the Archaic Period, atime when people hunted animal species existing today and gathered wild plant foods as asupplement. Hunting and gathering in this area from about 6000 B.C. to A.D. 1, they continuedto use the colorful flint, and many of their chipping workshops are located on the hilltops overlooking the Canadian River. The use of Alibates Flint continued throughout the Woodland Period, A.D. 1 to 1000, as this tradition spread from the east, up the Arkansas and Canadian Rivers, bringing such ideas as farming and pottery making into this region. The Plains Villagetradition, which followed, was a blend of Mississippian influences from the east with indigenous Woodland traditions.

During the period A.D. 1000 to 1500, a sedentary agricultural group (Antelope Creek Focus) built stone and adobe villages here and in other parts of the Texas Panhandle. They too madetools of the rainbow-hued flint and traded it for Pacific Coast seashell, Minnesota pipestone, painted pottery from the Southwest Pueblos, and other items. Ideas were exchanged as well, andthe villagers began to build multiroomed houses, an idea adopted from the Puebloan Indians ofNew Mexico.

After 1450, Apache Indians began to replace sedentary farmers in the Texas Panhandle. In theHistoric Period, beginning with Coronado's trek into Kansas to Quivira in 1541 several tribes ofnomadic Indians dominated the area until the U.S. Army opened the door to settlers in 1874.One of these pioneers, a man named Allie Bates, worked near the flint quarries on a cottonwood-shaded creek, later named for him.

Tours

Tours of the quarry are by advanced reservation guided tours only. Reservations may be made by calling park headquarters at 806/857-3151. There is no visitor center or self-guided trails.

The tour involves a leisurely walk up a moderately steep trail that is covered with loose gravel inplaces. Comfortable, sturdy walking shoes are recommended. During the tour, the ranger willtell the group about the Indians who used the quarries and dug many of them during the yearsA.D. 1000 - 1500. The quarries themselves consist of a large number of small pits scatteredalong the edge of the bluffs above the Canadian River. These pits vary from five to twenty-fivefeet across and are now only about two feet deep, having been filled with dust and sand over the years.

Any size group is welcome to take the tour, but groups of less than twenty-five are recommended.Much of the trail is single file, and individuals in the rear of larger groups may have difficulty hearing the ranger at the front of the group.

P.O. Box 1460
Fritch, TX 79036
(806) 857-3151