PRESIDIO COUNTY — At Wednesday’s Commissioners Court meeting, representatives from the Big Bend Conservation Alliance and the People of La Junta for Preservation gave a presentation on an upcoming two-pronged project. The organizers first hope to install a historical marker at the Elephant Rock pullout on Highway 67; eventually they’d like to push the state government to consider changing the feature’s signage to “Cibolo Rock,” mirroring the ranch, creek and Native American group of the same name.
When a petition for the renaming started circulating on Facebook, dozens of people — locals and non-locals alike — brought out the pitchforks. “For as long as I have lived, this has been called Elephant Rock,” one poster commented. “Why rename it?”
Some of the negative responses were generated by old-timers nostalgic about road trips through the years. Others drew comparisons to the so-called “woke agenda” and the tearing down of Confederate monuments in an effort to “erase history.”
The organizers insist that their goal is just the opposite: they want to reclaim Presidio County’s history and tell a side of the story that most people haven’t heard before.
Local historian Oscar Rodriguez emphasized that — while the petition is being led by a coalition made up primarily of Mexican American and Indigenous organizers — it wasn’t meant to favor any one group. Instead, the proposed marker would celebrate all of the groups of people who have made the county what it is today, from Spanish explorers to Anglo ranchers to the dozens of native groups who call this place home. “Cibolo Ranch is one of a very few cultural artifacts in Presidio that links all the people who came here and are still here,” he explained.
Rodriguez offered a brief history of the term “cibolo,” which means “bison” to regional Spanish speakers. Explorer and castaway Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca passed through what’s now Presidio and Ojinaga in 1527 and was struck by how many Native groups lived there. “We wandered among so many others and so many diverse languages that it is impossible to remember them all to tell about them,” he wrote.
Cabeza de Vaca was also impressed by their “cows” — which historians believe were actually bison, as domesticated cows had not yet reached northern Mexico.
Juan Antonio Trasviña y Retes came to the area in 1715 with the goal of establishing missions — one of which was placed at the modern-day site of Cibolo Ranch. The Spanish marked natural features in the area with the name “cíbolo,” a word derived from the legendary Seven Cities of Cíbola that they were convinced lay somewhere in the then-unexplored Great Plains. The word “cíbolo” emerged as a catch-all term for creatures from the plains — most notably, the giant bison that roamed in abundance.
The modern-day Elephant Rock was referred to as “Cibolo Rock” as early as the 1880s, when Major William Livermore was tasked with mapping the area. The name stuck until the 1960s in the aftermath of President Johnson’s Highway Beautification Act. TxDOT went to work marking roadside attractions for the rise of highway tourism — including Elephant Rock.
Rodriguez explained that these roadside stops were designed haphazardly, with little local participation — leading to the decision to interpret the shape of the rock formation as an elephant, rather than a bison. “They didn’t do any research, they didn’t seek any input — they decided amongst themselves,” he said.
As Indigenous historian Enrique Madrid told The Big Bend Sentinel in August 2022: “The only elephants that came through Shafter were with the circus.”
Presidio High School graduate and Harvard-educated anthropologist Nakaya Flotte co-authored a paper about the site with Rodriguez. Flotte emphasized that — while she would like to “re-indigenize” the history and culture of the Big Bend — the project wasn’t about imposing something new on a beloved landmark. “I could understand the arguments [against] if we were changing the name to an Indigenous name that had never been registered,” she said. “I hope that people understand that it’s not about change, it’s about going back to the way things were.”
Christina Hernandez of the People of La Junta for Preservation couldn’t help draw a connection between the naming of Elephant Rock and the literal erasure of her family’s Indigenous past.
Hernandez led the charge of the project to reclaim El Cementario de los Lipanes, a Lipan Apache cemetery that was razed by the City of Presidio around the time the Elephant Rock marker was erected. Throughout her life, she’s struggled to protect the small piece of her ancestors’ final resting place that remains. “I grew up calling it Elephant Rock,” she said. “But when I look at this timeline, I think of the nine-tenths of my family cemetery that was erased from the ground — literally — to create city lots.”
In stark contrast to the Facebook flame war, county leaders at Wednesday’s meeting were supportive of the initiative. Precinct 3 Commissioner Jose Cabezuela and County Judge Joe Portillo brought up the fact that Indigenous languages are still intertwined with the languages that everyday Presidians speak — for example, the local word for “twins” is the Apache “cuates” instead of “gemelos,” the standard Spanish term. “I think it’s a worthwhile project, and I hope you guys are successful,” Judge Portillo said.
BBCA Executive Director Shelley Bernstein was hopeful that the online arguments would spark positive discussions and provide an opportunity for people to learn about the region’s past. “It’s not necessarily about changing minds,” she said. “I look at this dialogue as a critical dialogue that needs to be had.”
Precinct 1 Commissioner Brenda Silva Bentley ended the discussion with a message of support: “I think it’s important to celebrate that history, and I’m willing to stand by it.”
Visit the petition online to sign or offer feedback.
