Refuge
Sam Aurelius Milam III
Back
when I was young, from about 1958 until about 1964, I spent a lot of time
hiking around on a big piece of vacant land that was adjacent to my home
in southeast Bexar County, Texas. It was a large piece of land, about
20 square miles. That's almost 13,000 acres. It was roughly
rectangular in shape and was bounded by three country roads and one two-lane
country highway. So far as I ever discovered, the land was devoid
of humans, except at the edges. There were small communities at the
intersections of the roads and there were occasional houses around the
perimeter of the piece of land, adjacent to the roads. Beyond the
back yards of those houses, the land was empty.
All
of that land was "privately owned" and, in previous years, I suppose that
it had probably been used for farms and pastures. It seems to me,
as well as I can recall the situation, that it had been overused, nearly
to depletion. Although it had been long unused at the time of my
explorations, it was still divided into square or rectangular regions of
either bare, eroded ground, or scrubby growth. Such fences as remained
were in disrepair. If there were any farm lanes, then I don't remember
seeing them. I was aware, at the time, that I was trespassing, so
I usually listened for engine noises and tried to stay close to the cover
of the scrubby regions. I never encountered anybody.
I
recall that the land was dry and consisted mostly of depleted and eroding
soil, and bare, dry gullies. It might have been at the beginning
of a long, slow return to a somewhat natural condition. I don't know.
It was, at that time, home to mostly mesquite trees, prickly pear, rattlesnakes,
a few mockingbirds, lizards, ants, and some jackrabbits. I recall
that there were also buzzards. Once, I saw a chaparral bird.
That was such an unusual event that I went right home and told Poppa about
it. I should also mention the possibility of a small population of
very large and very elusive canids. About that, I can only speculate.
In that regard, see my article Sightings,
in the February 2018 issue.
During
the years of my explorations, nobody travelled there except for me, occasionally
accompanied by my brother or my sister and, usually, by my dog, Wolf.
During one such exploration, during which I was accompanied by my brother,
we discovered the remains of an ancient, abandoned farmstead. It
was far and away the furthest that we'd ever ventured into the region.
As well as I can recall, it must have been near to the very center of the
piece of land, a long distance from any people or habitations. The
old house appeared to have been abandoned for many decades. While
we were exploring the place, we climbed up onto a pile of old lumber.
Fortunately, the lumber supported our weight long enough for us to notice
that it was covering a very deep, dug well, and to climb back off of it.
By dug, as opposed to drilled, I mean that the well was plenty wide enough
that we could easily have fallen into it. We dropped a rock into
it and counted several seconds before we heard it thump at the bottom.
Nobody knew where we were. If we'd fallen into the well, then we
might not have been located for weeks, if ever.
During
my explorations, I learned various things about the region. One observation
was that there weren't any stickers growing there. Some people might
view that as trivial but, in nature, few things are trivial. It was
interesting to me because the local houses were mostly surrounded by sticker
patches, which were an ever-present peril. Walking barefoot, outside,
was absolutely not done. I still don't know why the stickers grew
only around the houses. I'm not necessarily claiming that there was
some kind of mystical significance, like karmic burrs under our saddles,
but I suppose that such a thing is possible. I don't necessarily
believe in karma and such things, but I don't necessarily scoff at them,
either. I can only speculate. Whatever the case, it's a fact
that the stickers grew only around human habitations. They didn't
grow in the abandoned land. It was a mystery to me at the time, and
it remains a mystery to me to this day.
I
haven't been back to that piece of land for almost 60 years. I expect
that, by now, it's probably covered with concrete, asphalt, ticky-tacky,
and people but, back then, it was an idyllic refuge for me from my various
trials and tribulations at home, and from the stickers.
| December 2020 | Frontiersman,0c/o
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