Hueco Tanks

The granite hills here hold an estimated 5,000 pictographs and a few petroglyphs at more than fifty sites, left by Jornada Mogollon farmers, by Apache, Jumano, Kiowa and Comanche visitors, and by the Tigua of Ysleta. The paintings are fragile, and modern graffiti still threatens them. Texas Parks and Wildlife admits 70 people a day to the self-guided North Mountain by permit, best reserved ahead, and other areas only on guided tours booked a week in advance.

What the plaque says

Hueco Tanks One of the most historic spots in the Southwest. Famous watering place for Indians, emigrants, and travelers. Near here on many occasions the Apache challenged the right of the white man to pass through and disturb his country. Here was a station of the Southern Overland Mail Line which linked St. Louis with San Francisco, 1858-1861. 1936

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Hueco Tanks State Park & Historic Site — 0.5 mi
  Three granite hills east of El Paso, dented with rain basins that keep an oak-juniper woodland alive, with world-class climbing and a ranch house that tells their story.
• Ysleta Mission (Corpus Christi de la Ysleta del Sur) — 23 mi
  The Tigua mission church at Ysleta, rebuilt in 1908 around the walls, bell and Santo Entierro that came through fire, its interior painted with rain clouds and corn.
• Tigua Indian Cultural Center, Ysleta del Sur Pueblo — 23 mi
  The cultural center of Ysleta del Sur Pueblo, the Tigua nation that has lived in the Mission Valley of El Paso since 1682 and keeps its own history here.
• Socorro Mission (Nuestra Senora de la Limpia Concepcion del Socorro) — 24 mi
  Socorro's adobe church on the El Paso Mission Trail, with walls five feet thick, carved vigas from an older church and a statue of Saint Michael said to have chosen the town.

More markers nearby

• Butterfield Overland Mail — 19 mi
• Biggs Army Airfield — 21 mi
• Rio Vista Farm — 22 mi
• Fort Bliss at Lanoria Mesa — 23 mi