Comanche Peak

Duane's take

The marker's the word, and here's how Duane tells it. There's a hill out in Hood County that's been playing a little trick on folks for well over a hundred years now, and the trick is this: it isn't exactly a peak. Comanche Peak, that name carrying all the drama you'd expect from something called a peak, is, in fact, a mesa.

Flat on top. Every bit of it. Rises up one thousand, two hundred and twenty-nine feet above sea level, which is no small thing in this part of Texas, but when you get up there expecting a pointed summit, well.

The land has other ideas. Now, nobody's entirely sure what those first peoples made of it, but the marker tells us Comanche Peak may have had ceremonial value for local tribes, or it may have served as a lookout point; for game, for enemies, for whatever was movin' across the horizon. A Comanche trail crossed Hood County right in this vicinity, so this mesa was sitting alongside a road that mattered long before any wagon ever rolled through.

And here's where the story gets good. In 1846, a group of pioneers and Native Americans set out together toward this very peak for a meeting. A gathering.

Something that needed to happen in the shadow of this landmark. They rode and they walked and they looked and they searched, and they almost failed to find it. Almost couldn't locate one of the most prominent landmarks in the entire county.

Because of the flat top. You see, from a distance, Comanche Peak doesn't rise to a point your eye can fix on and follow. It just kind of... levels off and disappears into the sky.

The very thing that makes it a mesa is the thing that made a trail party in 1846 nearly ride right past it. Later on, settlers warmed up to the place considerably. They held dances up on that flat top, which, you have to admit, is a fine use of geography.

Students from Add-Ran College came out for picnics at the peak. And boys, being boys, took to hunting wolves and rattlesnakes among the caves and rocks scattered across the summit. Not exactly what most folks picture when they pack a lunch, but this is Texas.

So there it stands. Comanche Peak, mesa in fact if not in name, landmark to tribes and pioneers and dancers and college students and snake hunters alike. It fooled a whole expedition in 1846, and it's been quietly amused about that ever since.

What the marker says

Known as a prominent Native American and pioneer landmark, Comanche Peak is actually a mesa. The peak rises 1,229 feet above sea level. The peak may have had ceremonial value for local tribes or have been a lookout point for game and enemies. A Comanche trail crossed Hood County in this vicinity. In 1846, pioneers and Native Americans en route to the so-called "peak" for a meeting almost failed to find it because of its flat top. Later settlers held dances here and students from Add-Ran College had picnics at the peak. Boys also hunted wolves and rattlesnakes among caves and rocks on the top. (1969)