Presidio de San Luis de Las Amarillas was founded in April 1757 to protect the Mission Santa Cruz de San Saba, established at the same time for the conversion of the Eastern Apaches. The fort and Mission were intended to promote Spain’s presence in the area and to help deter potential French territorial claims. The Mission was located about three miles downstream from the Presidio on the opposite bank of the San Saba River. Both structures were originally constructed of logs.

Although the Apaches frequented the Mission, they never entered into it to stay. By befriending the Apaches, however, the Spaniards gained their enemies. On March 16, 1758, the allied northern tribes some 2000 strong destroyed the Mission, killing two of the three priests and at least six other Spaniards. The Presidion sent a small relief fort to the Mission, but the soldiers were driven back.

The attack represented the first armed conflict between Europeans and Comanches in Texas. It was also the first time the Spaniards had confronted large numbers of Indians with firearms, acquired in trade with the French. The Mission was never rebuilt.

More than a year after the destruction of the Mission, Colonel Diego Orthiz Parrilla, Presidio commander, led a force of 600 Spanish militiamen and Indian auxiliaries in a campaign to punish the natives responsible for the attack. He was repulsed with heavy losses at the Taovaya village on the Red River near present-day Spanish Fort and subsequently was relieved of command. Parrilla’s successor, Captain Felipe de Rabago y Teran, replaced the log stockade with the stone compound, apportion of which was replicated as a Texas Centennial project begun in 1936. The original rectangular structure measured some 300 to 360 feet long, had walls ranging from 6 to 20 feet high, contained upwards of 50 rooms, and had towers in the corners for defense.

During the years that followed there were numerous attacks against both the Presidio and resident in the area. Rabago continued to occupy the post-”an island in a seat of Indian hostility”-until June 1768, when he abandoned it without authority. It was reoccupied briefly in 1770 by Manuel Antonio de Oca, then permanently abandoned to the ravages of time.

In the next century, as Anglo settlers began to arrive in the area, the Presidio buildings occasionally served as a temporary home and as a refuge during Indian raids. The walls of the compound were used to contain longhorn cattle for drives up the Western Trail to the Kansas railheads.

Traces of the Spaniards ‘irrigation ditch are still seen on the south side of the San Saba River. It is believed that the Spaniards may have used this ditch to float stones on rafts to the site for Presidio construction. The ditch was opened in 1879 to channel water to Otto Kordzik’s gristmill just above present Menard.

The St. Louis Department is recognized as a progressive leader in providing the highest quality of emergency services.

The St. Louis Fire Department protects a city that covers approximately 62 squares miles and has a population of approximately 350000 full time residents and a daytime population of approximately 500000.

The St. Louis Fire Department currently has 30 firehouses strategically located around the city of St. Louis. These houses are currently occupied by 36 full-time fire companies, 13 Medics Units, along with various other specialty equipment. There are 30 pumpers, 4 hook and ladders and 2 heavy rescue squads. The houses are broken down into 6 fire districts, with each district having 6 frontline fire apparatus. In 2007, the St. Louis Fire Department had a total of 101844 responses, of h: 41856 were fire suppression responses and 59988 were emergency medical services responses. The St. Louis Fire Department employs approximately 900 personnel, which includes Firefighters, EMTs, Paramedics and civilians.

In addition to fire suppression and emergency medical services, the St. Louis Fire Department also has specialized units which include:

-Aircraft Rescue Firefighting at Lambert St. Louis International Airport

-Haz-Mat Task Force

-Marine operation with a Boston Whaler called the Jack Buck which is permanently moored on the Mississippi River, along with several other small rapidly deployable boats

-Dive and Swift Water Rescue

-High-Angle Rope Rescue

-Trench and Collapse Rescue

The St. Louis Fire Department also believes in and works strongly on community outreach programs: fire safety presentations, child safety seat installations, fire safety house presentations, free smoke alarm installations, fire safety brochures, fire extinguisher training, CPR training, fire service career education, R.U.O.K. telephone reassurance program.

September 14, 1857: The city of St. Louis operating as a paid, career fire department

February 22, 1858: The Gamewell Fire Alarm System was installed

February 25, 1858: The first alarm transmitted on the Gamewell Alarm Boxes

1905: A locomobile Touring Car was the first automobile purchased for the Fire Chief

July 27, 1910: The first piece of motorized apparatus was a 1910 Webb 700gpm Pumper

May 21, 1921: The first African-American firefighter was appointed to the St. Louis Fire Department

July 15, 1926: The St. Louis Fire Department Training Academy was organized

March 25, 1927: The St. Louis Department became fully motorized

1934: Windshields and windshield wipers were installed on all 1st line apparatus

March 20, 1943: Fire Chief Joseph Morgan was killed in the line of duty

January 24, 1958: The St. Louis Department took control of Fire Protection at Lambert St. Louis Airport

1960: The first fire station without brass sliding poles was built

January 1, 1977: The Gamewell system was discontinued, ending an era, which lasted almost 120 years

1981: The St. Louis Fire Department Honor Guard was organized

1987: The first of 30 new Quints begin to arrive in St. Louis

August 28, 1987: Female Firefighters joined the ranks of the department

February 15, 1989: The new Fire Department Headquarters building opened at 1421 N. Jefferson

August 5, 1990: The new Training Tower opened on the lot behind headquarters

August 27, 1994: The St. Louis Department Memorial statue was dedicated

August 14, 1995: The first Responder Medical program started

February 14, 1996: The St. Louis Department promoted its first female to the rank of Fire Captain

April 19, 1997: The city of St. Louis Emergency Medical Services was placed under the direction of the St. Louis Fire Department

October 15, 1997: The AED program was established, placing defibrillators on all 1sr line apparatus

November 29, 1999: Sherman George became the first AfricanAmerican to be promoted to the position of Chief of the St. Louis Fire Department

2003: New fire apparatus arrive including 2 Rescue Squads, a Haz-Mat Unit, a Supply Truck and a fire boat that was christened the Jack Buck

On May 16, 1921, history was made when Paul S. Farbush, Lorenzo Graham, Thomas S. Hill, Claude Johnston, Henry Porter, Frank Slaughter and Walter Hill along with Pearl Bishop became the first African-American men hired to work for the St. Louis Fire Department.

The next group of African-American firefighters were hired in 1926, with some of them being assigned to Engine Company 10 located at 20 S. Jefferson.

Claude Johnson was the first African-American to be promoted to Lieutenant on July 16, 1926, and then to the rank of Captain on November 16, 1929.

Engine Company 28 became a segregated house in 1933, when the last of the white firefighters were removed with the promotion of Lorenzo Graham to Captain.

In 1934, Private Thomas Hill and Robert Turner were assigned as engineers, becoming the first African-American firefighters to be allowed to drive the fire apparatus.

In 1943, the city of St. Louis Department of personnel was placed under Civil Service, and Quentin O’Neal became the first African-American to be promoted under Civil Service.

On December 1, 1952, Earl L. Hatton was the first African-American firefighter promoted to the Fire Investigation Unit as an investigator.

In April of 1961, the era of segregated Engine Houses came to an end when Chief Robert Olson reassigned the personnel to various other firehouses throughout the city.

On August 15, 1976, Preston Bouie was the first African-American to be promoted to Battalion Chief and the first to be promoted to Deputy Chief on August 13, 1978. On June 17, 1983, Chief Bouie was promoted to the position of Assistant Fire Chief, the only African-American to serve in that position.

John Williams was the first African-American to be hired in Fire Alarm as a dispatcher in 1981. He was later promoted to Senior Fire Equipment Dispatcher in March 2000 and to fire Alarm Manager in April of 2003.

The history of the African-American female firefighter began in 1987 when, for the first time, women became part of the St. Louis Fire Department. Two of the five women hired were African-American, Claudia Stevenson and Anita Stewart. Claudia Stevenson went on to become the first African-American female promoted to the rank of Fire Captain.

On October 28, 1988, George Horne became the first African-American Fire Marshall for the St. Louis Fire Department.

On June 13, 1986, seven African-Americans were promoted to Battalion Chief.

In November of 1999, the city of St. Louis made history when it promoted Deputy Chief Sherman George to Fire Commissioner and Chief of the St. Louis Fire Department. This marked the beginning of a new era in the history of the African-American firefighter on the St. Louis Fire Department.

Old documents show that American Indians knew about and bathed in the hot springs during the late 1700s and early 1800s. Their ancestors may have also known about the hot springs. Some believe that the traces of minerals and an average temperature of 143F give the waters whatecer therapeutic properties they may have. People also drink the waters from the cold springs, which have different chemical components and properties. Besides determining the chemical composition and origins of the waters, scientists have determined that the waters emerging from these hot springs are over 4000 years old. The park collects 700000 gallons a day for use in the public drinking fountains and bathhouses.

History

French trappers, hunters, and traders became familiar with this region during the 17th and 18th centuries. In 1803 the United States acquired the area when it purchased the Louisiana Territory from France. The next year President Thomas Jefferson dispatched an expedition led by William Dunbar and George Hunter to explore the newly acquired springs. Their report to the President was widely publicized and stirred up interest in the Hot Springs of the Washita.

In the years that followed, more and more people came here to soak in the waters. Soon the idea of “reserving” the springs for the nation took root, and territorial representative Ambrose H.Sevier sent a proposal to Congress. Then in 1832, the federal government took the unprecedented step of setting aside four sections of land here. It was the first U.S. reservation created to protect a natural resource. Boundaries were not marked, and by the mid-1800s individuals had fled claims and counterclaims on the springs and surrounding land.  

The first bathhouses were crude canvas and lumber structures, little more than tents perched over individual springs or reservoirs carved out the rock. Later, businessmen built wooden structures, but they frequently burned, collapsed because of shoddy construction, or rotted due to continued exposure to water and steam. Hot Springs Creek, which ran right through the middle of all this activity, drained its own watershed and collected the runoff of the springs. Generally it was an eyesore-dangerous at time of high water and a mere collection of stagnant pools in dry time. In 1884, the Federal Government put the creek into a channel, roofed it over, and laid a road above it. Much of it runs beneath Central Avenue today.

The government took active control of the springs and reservations for the first time after all the private claims on reservation land were settled in 1887. It approved blueprints for private bathhouses ranging from simple to luxurious. The government even operated a free bathhouse and public health facility for those unable to pay for baths recommended by their physician. Gradually Hot Springs came the called “The American SPA”. Such slogans as “Uncle Sam Bathes the World” and “The Nation’s Health Sanitarium” were used to promote the city. Because minorities did not have equal access to the bathhouses on Bathhouse Row, African Americans opened their own facilities nearby beginning in 1905.

By 1921 the Hot Springs Reservation had become popular with vacationers and health remedy seekers. The new National Park Service’s first director, Stephen Mather, convinced Congress to declare the reservation the 18th national park. Monumental bathhouses built along Bathhouse row about that time catered to crowds of health-seekers. These new establishments, full of the latest equipment, pampered the bather in artful surroundings. The most expensive decorated their walls, floors and partitions in marble and tile. Some rooms sported polished brass, murals, fountains, statues, and even stained glass. Gymnasiums and beauty shops helped cure-seekers in their efforts to feel and look better.

The army/Navy Hospital, now the hot Springs Rehabilitation Center, is located just above the south end of Bathhouse Row. Its use of the hot spring water for treatment contributed to a boost in the bathing business during and immediately after World War 2. By the 1950s changes in medicine led to a rapid decline in the use of water therapies. People also began taking driving vacations rather than traveling by train to a single destination. One by one, as business declined, the bathhouses began to close. The Buckstaff has been in continuous operation since it opened in 1912 and is the only bathhouse on Bathhouse Row that provides the traditional therapeutic bathing experience.

Despite the decline, bathing continues to be a popular pastime. Options available today still include tub bath, shower, steam cabinet, hot and cold packs, whirlpool, and massage.

What makes this water hot ?

Hot Springs National Park is not a volcanic region. The water is heated by a different process. Outcroppings of Bigfork Chert and Arkansas Novaculite absorb rainfall in an arc from the northeast around to the east. Pores and fractures in the rock conduct the water deep into the Earth.

As the water percolates downward, increasingly warmer rock heats it at a rate of about 4F every 300 feet. This is the average geothermal gradient worldwide, caused by gravitational compression and by the breakdown of naturally occurring radioactive elements. In the process the water dissolves minerals out of the rock. Eventually the water meets faults and joints leading up to the lower west slope of Hot Springs Mountain, where it surfaces.

Ladies's cooling room The cooling room was a place for relaxing after the baths, while the body temperature returned gradually to normal. Wrapped loosely in sheets or bathrobes, some patrons enjoyed reading during this period; others preferred socializing or dozing.

Ladies's pack room In pack rooms such as this one throughout the Hot Springs reservation, attendants applied carefully-timed moist packs to ailing body parts. The entire body was generally wrapped with a sheet. Visitors usually went from the pack room to take a needle-shower before entering the cooling room.

Ladies's bathhall A carefully-timed, temperature-controlled, and skillfully-attended hot thermal bath was the centerpiece of the spa experience. The Fordyce booklet claimed facilities of equal elegance for men and women. Female visitors must have been aware that their bathhall suffered by comparison with the men’s sumptuous facilities, however. The seven tubs originally installed here were not enough, and the manager, John Manier, noted in 1916: “We are badly crowded with lady bathers.” One more tub was added.

hydroterapy room The bathing variations available in this room were generally prescribed by physicians for specific ailments or injuries, although most therapies did not require a prescription. There were no know deaths by electrocution in the “electric bath” at the Fordyce, but the procedure has long since been abandoned.

Steam cabinet room The temperature of the steam in a vapor cabinet varied from 115 degrees to 140 degrees Fahrenheit. A vapor bath caused profuse sweating, rapid pulse and higher body temperature. In the treatment of rheumatism, advanced syphilis, jaundice and obesity, prolonged vapor baths – up to 30 minutes – were administered.

Men's bathhall The large domed skylight contains approximately 8000 pieces of glass, arranged to represent Neptune’s daughter, mermaids, dolphins and fish in swirling water. Lounging on the marble benches below and drinking the waters, the men enjoyed the club-like camaraderie encouraged in the Fordyce.

Men's pack room In the pack room, busy attendants placed hot and cold packs on the “affected” body parts of the bathers. But attendants were not allowed to diagnose illnesses, and federal regulations prohibited them from placing more than four packs on a bather. Attendants considered this work the most demanding in the bathhouse.

Men's cooling room Here, protected from the shock of drafts, men took temporary refuge from the various hot water treatments. Cooling rooms helped bathers get the reinvigoration that comes when sweating diminishes and blood vessels contract.

Chiropody room In the chiropody room, foot problems were treated in a number of ways. Painful cysts between the bones on the bottoms of feet would be crushed and slid off with sideward knuckle punches. This technique allowed patients to begin walking normally after a couple of days, as opposed to the two week recovery typically required by surgery. Patrons of both sexes received a variety of services in the chiropody room. These included foot massage, pedicures and treatment of corns, bunions and other foot problems. Patient use of the chiropody room declined in the 1930s.

Ladies' court Although the staid and conservative Fordyce Bathhouse advertised nude bathing, this was intended mostly for men. The custom of the day called for upper class women to maintain pale complexions. The ladies ‘court, on the shady side of the building, offered women a chance to get a little sun without risking a tan.

Ladies' dressing room Dressing rooms for ladies in Hot Springs bathhouses generally contained either benches or chairs, as well as mirrors and clothing hooks, in each stall. The wooden doors on the Fordyce stalls were considered superior to the curtained closing in many of the other bathhouses. Furniture in the lounging area was salvaged from the old Palace Bathhouse when it was razed to make room for the Fordyce on this site.

Mechano-Therapy room Crammed with abundant equipment to exercise muscles, sharpen reflexes and excite nerves, this room was somewhat neglected in favor of the gym, where interesting big league baseball players or well-know boxers might be encountered.

Men's massage room Although massages basically involved simple yet skilled manipulation of muscles and joints, management surrounded this activity with showmanship and gadgets. Promotion coupled with growing interest caused the bathhouses to run out of suitable spaces to expand. The massages generated substantial income, but the government only reluctantly allowed expansion on the basis that the standard bath was all that was necessary.  The scents of soothing ointments, the orange glow of heat lamps, the crackle and hum of electric devices and the thwack of hands against skin filled massage rooms. Well-trained masseurs worked out the kinks in muscles and aches in bones and joints of appreciative patrons.

Men's court In keeping with the spa image of naturalness, men sunbathed outdoors in the nude, amid an abundance of potted plants. An artist’s rendition of vegetation on the privacy fence between the men’s and women’s courts added to this ambiance. Snoozing and placid tobacco chewing often came to a sudden end with the onset of rain showers.

[

Hubbard tub room The Hubbard Tub was installed in 1939 in the room formerly used to administer mercury rubs – once a standard treatment for syphilis. Notice the overhead transport for non-ambulatory patients.

3rd floor elevator Since the sexes were segregated, the elevator also served as a message center. The elevator operator passed on oral messages between bathers, such as, “Your husband has just now entered the Hubbard Tub and will join you later in the music room”.

Assembly room This elegant assembly room was considered one of the crown jewels of the Fordyce. Both a social and cultural center, the area was used for concerts as well as more private socializing. Here John Fordyce’s collection of Indian relics was displayed “for the edification of the bathers”, in special cases added to the hall by 1934.

Ladies' parlor Originally planned and used as a combination music room and ladies parlor, this room also served as a beauty parlor at times during the Fordyce Bathhouse operations. A. Knabe grand piano, purchased in 1915, was the focal point of the ladies ‘parlor and music room, which opened the main assembly room.

Beauty parlor Several different rooms housed the Beauty Parlor during the nearly half-century of the Fordyce Bathhouse. During much of World War 2 the beauty parlor was not open due to the general labor shortage. Services offered by beauticians, when available, included shampoo, finger wave, lacquer, neck-trim, permanent and cold wave, lash dye, arch, oil bleach, facial and manicure.

Ladies'massage room Massage was a popular part of the bath routine. On several occasions, the Fordyce manager, John F. Manier, added massage facilities by moving or eliminating other functions that were less appreciated or less lucrative. Electrical massage and therapy equipment was installed in the third floor women’s department around 1918.

Gymnasium From 1923 until at least 1932, the Fordyce management employed a “physical culture director” to supervise the gymnasium, offer instruction, and guide the therapeutic exercises. Improved models of the equipment in this gymnasium are still used today in health spas catering, to the “fitness” movement.

Fordyce Spring The spring covered with glass fascinated guests so much that a more elaborate and well lighted enclosure was created. Quartz crystals from a local mine gave sparkle to the design.

Mechanical room This room contained holding tanks, pumps, and a vast tangle of water pipes overhead, most of which have since been removed. This area also included shop space for a plumbing engineer, who must have been kept rather busy. The elevator was operated by an electric motor winch system. Imagine this system in operation, with sparks from arcing current and the associated clatter as circuits were made and broken.

Habitats

Our lizards live in three types of habitats: forests, glades and prairies. Those living in forests use clearings, where they bask in the sun on fallen logs. Glade species bask in the sun on rocks, as well as take shelter under them at night. Prairie lizards have no problem finding places to bask, but they take shelter in animal burrows or under dead grass.

Lizard Skin

Missouri’s lizards all have scales and a tough outer skin. Just like snakes, lizards must shed their skin so they can grow. A lizard’s outer skin normally comes off in large pieces three or four time during the summer.

What Lizards eat and what eats lizards

All our lizards eat insects and spiders. They are valuable as a natural control of destructive species, such as termites. Skinks and fence lizards are known to eat the winged life stage of termites as they emerge from underground in mid-spring. And, the eastern collared lizard is an important predator of other lizards! Kingsnakes and racers will eat lizards at every opportunity. The roadrunner, a bird that lives on glades in southwest Missouri, is a primary lizard eater. Hawks are important lizard predators. Shunks and badgers dig up lizard eggs. Unfortunately, house cats have proven to be a primary predator of all species of lizards.

Tongues and teeth

Lizards use their tongue to pick up odors in their environment. They use their small, strong teeth to grab and crush insects. If you capture a large skink or fence lizard, its bite will feel like nothing more than a pinch. However, collared lizards have a larger head and strong jaws and can cause a superficial bite that may bleed slightly.

The tail saves the day

A lizard can release a part or all of its tail when it is grabbed by a predator. Once the tail is broken off, the lizard quickly runs for shelter and is safe for the moment, leaving a squirming tail to confuse or distract the predator. A lizard’s tail has special muscles that constrict at a break point and prevent any blood loss. After a lizard has lost its tail, a new one will eventually grow back, but it will not be as colorful or elegant as the original. It may take three or four months to grow the replacement.

Eggs and young

All Missouri lizards lay eggs. Most female lizards will lay their eggs in a burrow in loose soil, under a flat rock or in rotten logs and leave them. Skinks and glass lizards are different. They lay their eggs under a flat rock or inside a rotten log and stay with the eggs until they hatch. They guard their eggs from being eaten by other lizards. The size of lizard eggs depends on the species. For example, our smallest lizard, the ground skink, lays from two to seven eggs that average under a half-inch long. Newly hatched lizards are small and are on their own, with no help or protection from the female. Ground skinks hatchlings are only 2 inches long-small enough to curl up on a dime with rooms to spare.

Western Slender Glass Lizard

Average total length is 26 inches. This is Missouri’s longest species of lizard. They are often called a “glass snake” because they are long, slender and legless. However, they are true lizards, with eyelids and ear opening on either side of the head; snakes have neither of these characteristics. Nearly two-thirds of the lizard is tail, and a large part of it can break off if grabbed by a predator. Glass lizards are tan or brown with black stripes. They are grassland and savanna reptiles and found statewide.

Racerunner

Average total length is 8 inches. They are long and slender with a dark brown or black background and 6 yellow stripes. Their long tails are tan or gray with slightly spiny scales. Males have a wash of blue or gray on their throat and chest, especially during the breeding season. 2 subspecies live in Missouri: the 6 lined racerunner in the eastern edge of the state and the prairie racerunner in the rest of the state. Racerunners are aptly named; they can run across an open area at what seems like lightning speed. Racerunners live in dry open sites with little vegetation. They may hide under flat rocks and are skilled at digging a shallow burrow in loose soil.

Southern Prairie Skink and Northern Prairie Skink

Average total length is from 5 to 7,5 inches. Both kinds live in Missouri. A small population of northern prairie lives in one county in Missouri’s extreme northwestern corner, and a small population of southern prairie skink was recently found in southwestern Missouri. The two species look similar. In general, prairie skinks have a longer tail than all other Missouri skinks. They are tan with a faint, light stripe down the back and one or two wide dark stripes along the sides. However, northern prairie skinks have darker striping along the body and tail than their southern cousin. Prairie skinks live in native tall grass prairie, especially along small prairie streams.

Great Plains Skink

Average total length is 11 inches. They are tan or light brown with most of the scales being edges in black. These markings may form irregular lines along the back and sides. Young are shiny-black and have a blue tail. This is a race species in Missouri, with few recent reports. They require native prairie with numerous rocks. Great Plains skins live in a few western counties.

Broadhead Skink

Average total length is 10,5 inches. This is Missouri’s largest forest-dwelling skink. They have a large, wide head and, during the breeding season, the heads of males become slightly swollen and orangish-red. The rest of the body has a few faint stripes. Adult females are more prominently marked with light and dark stripes. Newly hatched young are black and have a bright blue tail. Broadhead skinks spend much of their time in large trees but will come to the ground to search for insects. Some Missourians call Broadhead skinks “scorpions” but they are not poisonous.

Southern Coal Skink

Average length is from 5 to 6 inches. Few people know about this secretive lizard. They are seldom seen because they quickly move under rocks or logs or into leaf litter when approached. They have a wide, coal black line along their sides. During the breeding season males have an orange head. Coal skinks live on rocky glades in the southern half of the state.

Five-Lined Skink

Average total length is 6,5 inches. Often called the “blue-tailed” skink, this is Missouri’s most common skink. It has five light lines from the head to the base of the tail. Adult females have brighter stripes than adult males. During the breeding season in late spring, males have bright orange on their heads. Hatchlings and those under a year of age have brilliant cobalt-blue tails. Five-lined skinks live in forests statewide, except for the northwest corner.

Ground Skink

Average total length is 4 inches. This is Missouri’s smallest species of lizard. They are brown with dark brown or black stripes and speckling along their sides. Ground skinks live on the forest floor and spend much of their time in dead leaves or under flat rocks. They do not climb trees like the other forest-dwelling skinks. When walking along a forest trail, hikers may hear the sound of small lizards scurrying through dead leaves, but seldom see them. Distribution is statewide except for a few counties in the northwestern corner.

Northern Fence Lizard

Average total length is 5 inches. They are grayish-brown with dark markings across the back and tail. This is a common forest-dwelling species that often lives around country homes and rock gardens. Their choice of split rail fences and stacks of firewood as place to live gave this species its name. They can escape capture by running up a tree. During the breeding season male fence lizards have a iridescent blue and black belly. Fence lizards live in the southern half and into the northeast corner of Missouri.

Texas Horned Lizard

Average total length of 3 inches. This is a rare species in Missouri, once living in several southwestern counties. Their name comes from the large, specialized scales along the back of their head that look like horns. They are harmless and never try to bit. They defend themselves by “puffing-up” to look larger, or they can eject a small amount of blood from the inner corners of each eye to confuse a predator. Texas horned lizards live in dry, open habitats with sparse vegetation and sandy or loose soil. Here they also find their favorite food: ants.

Easter Collared Lizard

Length: from 8 to 14 inches. Their name refers to a pair of black markings behind their head. Males are more colorful than females and have bright green legs, green specks covering the tail and some orange on the throat. Collared lizards live in the Missouri Ozarks on rocky, dry, open, south-facing hillsides. They eat insects and other kinds of lizards. Adult collared lizards have the remarkable ability of running on their hind legs when escaping capture. The local name “mountain boomer” refers to the population of collared lizards in the southwest United States. Early settlers to that area saw collared lizards basking on rocks but heard the barklike call of a frog that lives in the same habitat. All lizards native to Missouri are voiceless.

In the spring of 1832, the land along the Rock River was a battlefield. The United States was at war with a band of Sauk and Fox Indians. At stake were the Indians ‘tribal homelands of northwestern Illinois and southern Wisconsin.

Almost 30 years earlier, Sauk and Fox leaders had handed over to the United Stats all tribal lands east of the Mississippi – over 50 millions acres! In exchange, they received a parcel of land in Iowa and an ongoing yearly payment of 1000 dollars.

One elderly Sauk warrior, Black Hawk, remained in Illinois. Although he vowed not to attack, he would not leave either. He and a band of about 1000 men, women and children traveled north along the Rock River. They called on villages, hoping to persuade other tribes to join them in reclaiming their land.

On May 14, 1832, three Sauk messengers carrying a white flag were shot by Illinois militia men. Black Hawk’s warriors retaliated and, although outnumbered 12 to 1, won the battle known as Stillman’s Run. This marked the beginning of the Black Hawk War.

Over 1300 U.S.Army troops and state militia men were called up to fight in the Black Hawk War. Among them were Zachary Taylor, Jefferson Davis and a 23 year old grocery clerk from New Salem named Abe Lincoln.

After winning several early battles, Black Hawk continued north along the Rock River. Other tribes refused to join him and his troops suffered heavy losses. On August 27, after being driven into Wisconsin and losing most of his warriors, Black Hawk surrendered.

Before this area was a state park, it was an artist’s colony known as Eagle’s Nest. Every summer for nearly 50 years, painters, sculptors and dancers gathered here to escape the city heat of Chicago and enjoy the great outdoors.

One artist was a sculptor named Loredo Taft. He was inspired by the beauty of the Rock River and the story of Black Hawk. He pictured an Indian standing with folded arms on the rocky bluffs gazing out at his lost land. He dreamed of making a statue so the legacy of the Indian would not be forgotten.

Dreaming of the 50 foot tall statue was a lot easier than building it, especially on top of a 200 foot cliff!

First, workmen shaped the statue’s frame. Working on a scaffold, they covered steel rods with chicken wire and wrapped it all in plaster-soaked burlap to look like the folds of an Indian blanket.

In the dead of winter, the statue was ready to be poured. Workmen carried buckets of wet concrete to the top of the statue and poured it into the mold.

The head was sculpted separately and hoisted in place to make sure the statue was looking in the right direction.

After the concrete had set over the winter, the mold was carefully chipped away. Luckily, everything worked !

Although it is called Black Hawk, the statue does not represent any one man. Instead, it is a tribute to all Native Americans, especially these who lived along the Rock River.