Hickison Summit

Proposed Text, Marker Text Plate in Production:

The summit is named after rancher John Hickison because the road to his ranch passed over the summit.  About one mile northwest lies Hickison Summit, a natural pass between two low buttes. Passes and canyons were common Native American hunting locations for funnelling and ambushing bighorn sheep and deer herds. Archaeological sites in the region reveal a dominance of bighorn bones and horn, reflecting the bighorn’s importance to Native Americans as food and raw material for tool production.  The bighorn lacked resistance to diseases introduced by domestic sheep in the nineteenth century, and this resulted in catastrophic bighorn population declines throughout the West.

Prehistoric Native American petroglyphs, images and designs are carved into rock surfaces, and are interpreted along a short hiking trail. Archaeologists hypothesize that the meanings for these designs include ceremonial, female puberty markers; ritual hunting magic symbols; and rock art or simply graffiti.

STATE HISTORICAL MARKER No. 137

STATE HISTORIC PRESERVATION OFFICE

AUSTIN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE