Dodging Obstructions On A Muddy Walk With The Village Creek Indian Ghosts Thinking About Floating On Willow Boughs On The Trinity River

Is the City of Arlington Parks Department on strike?

It has been well over a week since I first came upon the obstruction you see in the picture, obstructing the Pioneer Trail that trails through the Village Creek Natural Historical Area.

Detouring around the obstruction put ones footwear in contact with mud. I do not like it when my footwear is in contact with mud. Unless my footwear, at the time, are my mud boots.

Today's mud was the result of this morning's brief downpour that poured down at the predicted time, but not of the predicted duration, and with none of the predicted hail or winds up to 60 mph.

The downpour started, at my location, about 5 minutes before I headed to the pool for my lately regular cool dip and quick retreat to the hot tub. When I got out from under falling rain protection I opened my bumbershoot. This did not seem counter-intuitive at the time, getting under an umbrella to walk to go swimming, but it does seem counter-intuitive now, though, I must say, the bumbershoot did come in handy, keeping my towel dry.

Changing the subject from me getting all wet, back to walking with the Village Creek Indian Ghosts.

I think I've made mention before of the historical informational sign that sits at the western entry to the Village Creek Natural Historical Area's Pioneer Trail. If I remember correctly, I have copied part of the text on that historical informational sign before. Today I decided to copy the first paragraph, for the enlightenment of those who do not know the nature of the Native Americans that the incoming Texans rudely evicted from this part of the country....

The Village Creek valley was home of the largest concentration of Native Americans in Texas. From prehistoric times native peoples practiced agriculture along the banks of Village Creek safe from the periodic floods of the Trinity River. Archaeological digs have revealed arrowhead points from 5,000 B.C. The first accounts of recorded history of settlement along Village Creek came in 1542 when royal Spanish map makers recorded a camp that explorers had made here at an Indian village named "Guasco". They described this area as being the western edge of a "corn belt," west of which were the grasslands of unfriendly Indian tribes. Several of the first European explorers to wander through the region recorded visits to villages of the Caddos, a leading tribe of the Caddo confederacy. These were peaceful tribes who grew corn along the creek, lived in conical-shaped dwellings thatched with grass or bark and navigated the Trinity River on rafts and in canoes made from skins stretched over a framework of willow boughs.

Okay, that ends your history lesson for today....