DUANE
Duane's take
Here's what the official marker has to say about Mulberry Canyon, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, some places have long memories. Mulberry Canyon, out in Taylor County, is one of them — and I mean long.
Human activity in this area has been traced all the way back to prehistoric eras. Long before anyone was carving names into anything, Native American tribes were roamin' this land alongside the buffalo, the deer, the turkey, the mountain lion, and the black bear. The canyon was alive with all of it.
The first recorded ventures in — as far as anyone wrote down — came in 1849. That year brought the Military Road survey and the forty-niner mail route both pushing through. Then, in 1858, the Butterfield Stage-Overland Mail route picked up that same Military Road and used it clear through to 1861.
So before most folks had ever heard of this canyon, it was already a corridor — a thread connecting one side of somewhere to another. And the name? The canyon was named for the mulberry trees that grew along the largest creek.
Simple as that, and fitting. Cattle ranchers started movin' in during the 1870s, findin' the canyon good for their purposes. But here's a moment worth pausin' on.
In 1878, the last herds of buffalo passed through Mulberry Canyon. The last ones. Just before pioneer families began to build communities.
You have to sit with that timing a second — the old world and the new one passin' each other in the same canyon, barely noddin'. The settlers got to work fast. In 1879 they planted maize, corn, and wheat.
By 1886, the first cotton went into the ground. Communities started springin' up — over half a dozen of them — served by ten churches and ten schools. At its peak, the canyon held a population of five hundred souls.
And then there's this detail the marker offers up almost in passing, like it's no big thing: the last black bear in Mulberry Canyon lived as a pet on the Brown Ranch in the 1880s. The last one. A pet.
I'll just leave that right there. The earliest marked grave in White Church Cemetery is dated 1883, which tells you something quiet and true about how fast a place goes from wilderness to community — and how fast community starts burying its own. Nubia was the only town that held on long enough to call itself a town proper.
It kept a post office until 1917. The last store in the canyon closed in 1946. Communities that had ten churches and ten schools and five hundred people — quieted down, one by one.
But here's how the marker ends, and I think it earns its place as a final line: in 1997, descendants of the pioneer settlers still occupied much of Mulberry Canyon. The buffalo are gone. The black bear is gone.
The post office is gone. The last store is gone. But the families?
Still there. Rooted like mulberry trees along a creek.
What the marker says
Human activity in this area has been traced to prehistoric eras. Native American tribes once roamed this land with the buffalo, deer, turkey, mountain lion, and black bear. Among the first recorded ventures into the canyon were the Military Road survey and the forty-niner mail route of 1849. The Military Road was used by the Butterfield Stage-Overland Mail route from 1858 to 1861. The canyon was named for the mulberry trees that grew along the largest creek. Cattle ranchers began to use the canyon in the 1870s. The last herds of buffalo passed through Mulberry Canyon in 1878 just before pioneer families began to build communities. In 1879 settlers planted maize, corn, and wheat; the first cotton was planted in 1886. The last black bear lived as a pet on the Brown Ranch in the 1880s. Over half a dozen small communities sprang up in the canyon. Ten churches and ten schools have served the area, which at its peak had a population of 500. The earliest marked grave in White Church Cemetery is dated 1883. Nubia, the only town, had a post office until 1917. The last store closed in 1946. In 1997, descendants of the pioneer settlers still occupied much of Mulberry Canyon. (1997)