Sabinal Canyon Family
History/Genealogy
Bandera/Uvalde County, Texas




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   How long has there been people in the Sabinal Canyon?
   Well, how far back do you want to go?
   80,000 years (or so) ago, this land was covered with water. Walk out across the pasture after a rain and see what the land tells you. The earth shook and volcanoes formed. Several extinct volcanoes are near Uvalde: one on F.M. 140 1.5-miles south, one at the Frio River and Hwy 90 near Knippa and another 10 miles west of Uvalde. Read about it. The water receded over time and formed into rivers which grew smaller with time. At one time the Sabinal River was a roaring rush of water and filled the whole canyon.
   In July of 2002, the canyon was flooded 3 times in 5 days. Each time the rushing water came from a different direction. When you live near a river, you learn to have great respect for it.
   Artifacts found at the Kincaid Shelter (Read about it.) go back more than 13,000 years. This shelter is just NW of Sabinal, Texas. Not yet open to the public. Fossils of extinct species: horse, alligator, elephant, mammoth, bison and lion have been found in the shelter. Early human occupants left scattered ash, bits of charcoal, chips of flint from making of stone tools. Later we find pottery sherds, bullets and buttons. They all give hints to the activities of human daily life.
   The Sabinal River supported fish, birds, wildlife and vegetation that humans needed to survive. The river is shaded by cypress, pecan, oaks and sycamores. We don't want to forget the stand of Big Tooth Maples near the headwaters above Vanderpool at Lost Maples Natural Area.
    You can still find places where cool clear spring water seeps from mossy banks. The Sabinal can be narrow and deep, then widen and shallow as it spreads out over limestone. The limestone may be marked with foot prints of prehistoric animals or tracks from covered wagons.
    The National Park Service Rivers of Southwest Texas lists details of the Frio, Nueces and Sabinal. (Read about it.)

L. J. (Cug) Davis brought his family to the Sabinal Canyon in the late 1880s. They came down from Llano and Tow Valley. Before that, they were in Limestone County.