DUANE
Duane's take
Well, the marker tells the story, and I'm just the one passin' it along — so let me tell you about Cedar Lake. Out here on the Plains of Gaines County, there's a place that goes by two names. Cedar Lake.
Or, if you prefer the older tongue, Laguna Sabinas. And right away, that ought to tell you something — this ground has been known, and named, and claimed by more than one world. It holds a distinction that's hard to ignore: the largest alkali lake on the Plains.
Not a gentle, inviting body of water, mind you. Alkali. The kind of place that looks like water from a distance and reminds you, up close, that this land keeps its own terms.
But people came anyway. Because people always come to water, even the difficult kind. Long before anyone drew county lines across this territory, this was an Indian camp and burial site.
The ground here holds the dead. It also, by the marker's own reckoning, witnessed a beginning — Cedar Lake is named as the birthplace of Quanah Parker. Let that settle for a moment.
One of the most consequential figures to ever ride these Plains drew his first breath right here, beside this alkaline water on the high, flat reach of Texas. And then came October of 1875. A skirmish — that's the word the marker uses, and it carries weight without needing to shout.
Here at Cedar Lake, Indians and United States Cavalry met in conflict. The cavalry was under the command of Lieutenant John L. Bullis.
A skirmish sounds small until you're standing on the ground where it happened, and then it sounds like exactly what it was. The State of Texas erected this marker in 1936. But the lake was here long before that.
The camp was here. The burial ground was here. The birth was here.
The fight was here. Some places just collect history whether they mean to or not.
What the marker says
Or Laguna Sabinas. Largest Alkali Lake on Plains; old Indian camp and burial site; birthplace of Quanah Parker. A skirmish between Indians and United States Cavalry under command of Lieutenant John L. Bullis took place here in October, 1875. Erected by the State of Texas 1936