DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm not about to understate a word. Fall of 1841, and Captain John C. Hays finds himself at the top of Enchanted Rock — which, if you've ever laid eyes on that great pink granite dome rising up out of the Hill Country, you already know it is not a small place to be stranded.
But stranded is exactly what he was. Surrounded by Comanche Indians who had cut him off from his ranging company. His men, somewhere down below.
The Comanche, everywhere else. Now, most stories that start that way don't end with the lone man on the rock walking away with much to brag about. This one does.
Captain Hays repulsed the whole band — the whole band — and inflicted upon them such heavy losses that they fled. Not retreated in good order. Fled.
From one man on a rock. That summit up there has seen a lot of Texas sky, but I'd wager it never saw another afternoon quite like that one in the fall of 1841. Marked by the State of Texas in 1936, and some stories, friends, earn every word of the marker they get.
What the marker says
From its summit, in the fall of 1841, Captain John C. Hays, while surrounded by Comanche Indians who cut him off from his ranging company, repulsed the whole band and inflicted upon them such heavy losses that they fled. Marked by the State of Texas 1936