Site of Old Park Named for Comanche Chief Katemcy

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker says about this place in Mason County, Texas. Now, there's a name carved into this land, and it belongs to a Comanche chief called Katemcy. The marker says he helped make a treaty with settlers back in 1847 — and the story goes that Katemcy and his peace party camped right here, in what is now this very park.

Camped right on this ground. Whether it was under these same trees, in this same shade, nobody can say for certain — but the tradition held, and it held long enough to name a park after the man. Fast-forward to 1925.

The settlers around here are holding their first Old Settlers Reunion on this land, and they brought in someone who could bridge two worlds in a way most folks in that crowd had never seen. His name was Herman Lehmann, and the marker tells us he was raised by Indians. At that reunion, Lehmann showed the ritual killing of an animal with a longbow.

You stop and think about what that moment must have felt like — old settlers gathered on land named for a Comanche chief, watching a man raised between two peoples demonstrate something ancient and precise. That's not a sideshow. That's a living thread connecting 1847 to 1925, right here in the open air.

And those settlers — they gave this land to the state for use as a park. Handed it over. That's the ground you're standing near right now, carrying all of that with it.

What the marker says

Helped make 1847 treaty with settlers. Katemcy and peace party said to have camped in present park. At first Old Settlers Reunion here (1925) Herman Lehmann, raised by Indians, showed ritual killing of animal with a longbow. Settlers gave the land to state for use as park. 1967