Colorado Bend State Park, Texas
All photos are © The Maverick Grotto and the respective photographer
All Rights reserved!
A new format for the CBSP pictures is being developed. We're dividing up
the photographs into subjects. Please pardon our redundancy while we're changing things up.
Photos from Colorado Bend State Park where Texas Cavers have maintained a
volunteer cave research
project since the early 1980's. The current version of the project
sponsored by the Texas Speleology Association (TSA) was begun, November 1987
after TPWD purchased the Lemons Ranch and combined it with the Gorman Falls
property. Shortly after the project began, the park was opened to the
public but the project continued as it does to this day.
There is no public caving on the park. To enter caves, one must be an
attendee of the volunteer project or go on a fee based guided wild cave tour
offered by TPWD. For more information, visit the link below.
www.tpwd.state.tx.us/park/colorado/
Map
Pictures taken by Butch Fralia using both film and digital cameras.
Photo credits for other photographers will be given for the individual photo.
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The Scholten Railroad (also called the Cedar Tap Railroad) ran from Lometa to whats now Colorado Bend State Park.
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Keith Heuss and Sharon Mastbrook on the Roadbed at Gorman Creek. It was necessary to build the roadbed up here but in many places cross ties were laid on bare rock.
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Keith Heuss, standing by the road bed where it was built up to cross Gorman Creek. The 36 inch wide tracks didn't require as much of a road bed as a full sized railroad.
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This is one of the few road bed locations on the park where remnants of cross ties still remain. The area shown is one of the more accessible. Much of the remaining roadbed is located in heavy brush.
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Cavers became interested in the railroad after many years doing cave research on the park. It's very near caves on many areas of the park.
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Using GPS receivers, the old road bed is being traced and plotted on the park map. If enough information is recovered, maybe we'll rename it "The Underground Railroad."
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As with many places in Central Texas, CBSP has it's share of feral pigs. This trap was place on the old RR bed. There was a "Y" located in this area to turn the train. |
In addition to cedar mining, the old fishing camp and the railroad, there were other attempts at enterprise on the park.
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There's a gold mine on the property where a Lampasas mining company mined for gold circa 1955. Old stories say there actually were small amounts of gold found.
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This cement structure was part of a rock crusher used to process ore from the "Upper" Gold Mine.
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Another mine called the "Lower Gold Mine" was discovered by a previous owner after a cedar burn.
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No one living knows the age of this excavation. There are mine tailings to indicate obvious digging.
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Was this one of Jim Bowies lost mines, Spaniards hunting for treasure or was it the source for something else?
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Hunting for caves, there are a lot of natural events to observe such as this Bumble Bee on a cactus flower.
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While doing his thing, the Bumble Bee becomes coated with pollen to carry to other cactus as part of the germination process.
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