Adopted by the OC on 3/28/06

We will restore, protect, promote and ensure a clean,
healthy, flowing San Bernard River for the sanity and
enjoyment of present and future generations.

 
Jan Edwards
F.O.R. San Bernard
Board Member/P.R.

Tales from River’s End – Passport to Adventure

by Janice R. Edwards

Greetings from River’s End.

Welcome 2007! As we are all poised on the edge of the unseen future, it occurs to me that there sure is potential for many wonderful things to happen this year - and 2007 gives us all the gift of time. Time for our river community to grow and get to know each other better. Time to have another spring clean-up and even adopt a section of highway to clean up and keep clean. Time to have more boat parades and another symbolic dig of the river mouth - and just maybe, the time will come to actually begin the process of opening the mouth of the river. We can always hope – the potential is there.

A new year is cause for reflection, too. Right now, the weather and Mother Nature are working hard to get me to look up from this post and notice them. At River’s End, the wind is howling, making the surf talk to those of us who live close enough to get in on the conversation. There must be 50 or 60 White Pelicans hunkered down across the river, protecting their heads from the persistent wind by tucking them under their wings. Hmmm – that’s a lot of Pelicans – more than normal. If you know me well, you will know that the Pelicans are my personal fish predictors for the year. If there are a lot of Pelicans across the river this time of year, then fishing will be good all year. From the looks of things we are going to have a banner year!

“My” Snow Geese just keep flocking in. Bad weather makes them stay close to the ground and they are almost always on the move. Their honks speak to me and I am glad they are around – it’s as it should be. I understand that there is a place in the San Bernard Wildlife Refuge where, if you are quiet and patient can see literally thousands come in and land right in front of you. If I get a chance to go – I’ll take my camera and show you what I see.

I’ve also been using this inclement weather to do some reading about a really “Auld Lang Syne” of this area. If you read the last post on the website, you know that Auld Lang Syne means long ago. The San Bernard National Wildlife Refuge is the site of the long ago I want to talk about. November 28, 2006 The Facts ran an article about the discovery in 2001, of possibly the oldest human remains found in both North and South America. The idea that a mysterious lady 12,000 years old was found in an old meander of Cocklebur Slough from 2001 - 2003 in the refuge haunts me. And with the Auld Lang Syne sentiments, I could not stand it until I accessed the website listed in the story: www.culturalresource.com/pan.html . The report I accessed is 87 pages long and I have dial-up – you know I HAD to be interested in the story to download and read it.

After reading the paper, Geoarchaeological and Archaeological Investigations of the BZT-1 Prehistoric Woman; Brazoria County, Texas, her story still haunts me. BZT-1 – guess that means Brazoria, Texas 1 (for the first site). I like to call her Texas’ first lady. But, who was she? What happened to her that she wound up here? And why, after all the changes brought on by hurricanes, floods, predation and years of human habitation of the area did she reappear – almost intact uncovered by digging a borrow ditch?

There were 2 separate digs (one in 2001, and one in 2003) to determine who and what she was.  Basically, the report concludes that BZT-1 was female and when she died, she was between 20 and 30 years of age. She did not appear to be intentionally buried and her skeleton was found lying face down, in an extended position with her hands crossed in front of her beneath her waist. BZT-1 seems to have been killed after having her hands tied in front of her - and then discarded in the muddy bank of a now extinct channel of Cocklebur Slough. There were no other artifacts found with her skeleton, and no evidence of a community. The radio carbon dating of her bones were calibrated to 12, 780 calendar years old with a 2-sigma (95% accuracy). This would make her remains one of the oldest – if not THE oldest human remains ever found on the North AND South American continents. And she was found right here in our back yard. Did you know that?

But now, her story gets even stranger. You’d think that since her skeleton was as old as it was proven to be, that where she was located should be listed in the National Register of Historic Places – but no, that was not to be. Although application was made to put the place she was discovered in the register, it was determined that since there was no other artifacts, no burial evidence, Cocklebur Slough would not qualify. BUT, the skeletal remains of BZT-1, as a collection, are recommended as eligible for immediate inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places. And where are the remains? They are permanently curated at the Center of Archaeological Research, The University of Texas, San Antonio, Texas.

Picture of BZT-1 remains from page 32 of Geoarchaeological and Archaeological Investigations of the BZT-1 Prehistoric Woman; Brazoria County, Texas

As the rain comes down outside, and the cold north wind beats on by patio door, I pull my sweater a little closer to fight back the shiver brought on by more than the just the cold and the following words to Auld Lang Syne come to mind:

          Should old acquaintance be forgot

          And never brought to mind.

Should old acquaintance be forgot

And days of Auld Lang Syne

We two have sported in the brook

          From morning sun ‘til night,

          But the seas between us have roared and swelled,

          Since Auld Lang Syne.

          So, here is a hand my trusted friend,

          And give me a hand of thine.

          We’ll take a cup of kindness yet

          For Auld Lang Syne.

As we look forward to a bright new year, let’s not forget the old times and those who came before us and loved this place – that the past is tied to the present by the threads of our memory and our actions today. Grab that “cup of kindness” and drink deeply – kindness should be on our Resolutions List for the New Year.

So, now what’s happening at the end of the river? Roy’s writing our meetings on the 2007 calendar, the Pelicans are getting ready for night fall and the ghosts of the river’s past are swirling in the north wind. Come back later this year for more songs and stories of the river. Here’s wishing you the best year ever, a warm, dry place to rest, lots and lots of Pelicans on the Bernard, a stretched fishing line, a good story and your own River’s End.

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