Garza Points
Post, Garza County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Thin, triangular arrow points 2 to 4 centimeters long. Of fine workmanship, with central basal notch and deeply serrated edges. Discovered and named here, site 41GR40, an archeological highway salvage dug in 1959 by South Plains Archeological Society. With these fine, thin arrow points, left near 6 hearths for cooking, were found 238 stone and bone artifacts: awls, wolf teeth pendants, tubular bone beads, chipped stone knives, scrapers, drills, choppers and 3 types of arrow points. The Garza People, roving hunters, lived here before 1500 A.D. (1965)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Excavated in a 1959 highway salvage dig, this archeological site gave its name to the Garza point—a thin, finely worked triangular arrowhead with a notched base and serrated edges. Alongside the points, archeologists found more than two hundred artifacts around ancient cooking hearths: bone awls, wolf-tooth pendants, tubular beads, knives, scrapers, and drills. The Garza people who left them were roving hunters who camped here before 1500 A.D.
Why it matters
Sites like this preserve the deep Indigenous history of the Southern Plains, reminding us that people hunted, cooked, and crafted fine tools here for centuries before any European arrived.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
Long before any European arrived on the Southern Plains, people lived, hunted and traveled across this region for thousands of years. By the later part of that long history, the bow and arrow had largely replaced older weapons such as the spear and dart thrower. That shift brought a new kind of stone tool: small, light arrow points, often carefully shaped and very thin.
The people who camped here lived by hunting and gathering, moving across the landscape as seasons and game dictated. The site where the Garza point was identified was used before 1500 A.D. That places it in the centuries before Spanish expeditions reached the Southern Plains and changed the region forever.
Much of what we know about this deep past comes from careful archeological work, and some of it from salvage digs. When roads and other construction threatened sites in the twentieth century, archeologists and dedicated amateur societies often worked quickly to record and recover what they could before the ground was disturbed. This site was one of those rescues.
People & events
The central figures here are the Garza people, roving hunters who used this spot long ago. We don't know their names or the language they spoke. They left traces of daily life around six hearths where they cooked, and the tools and ornaments they made and used. Who exactly they were, and how they relate to later Native peoples of the region, is a question archeologists still discuss, and the record here doesn't settle it.
What they left behind is remarkable. Their signature artifact is the Garza point: a thin, triangular arrowhead two to four centimeters long, finely made, with a notch at the center of the base and deeply serrated edges. Making a point that small and that precise takes real skill.
Around the hearths, excavators recovered 238 stone and bone artifacts that show a rich material life: bone awls for working hide, pendants made from wolf teeth, tubular bone beads, and chipped stone knives, scrapers, drills and choppers, along with three types of arrow points. In 1959 members of the South Plains Archeological Society excavated the site, known as 41GR40, in a highway salvage dig. Because the distinctive point was discovered and named here, the name "Garza" now travels wherever archeologists discuss this type.
Its place in the American story
Sites like this are reminders that American history didn't begin with European arrival. The Southern Plains were home to people with sophisticated skills, trade goods, ornaments and ways of life, centuries before the region appeared on any European map. A single campsite can hold evidence of cooking, hunting, craftwork and personal adornment all at once.
This site also shows how the United States has learned about its own deep past. Much of the nation's archeological record was saved through salvage work ahead of construction, and much of it depended on dedicated local societies of amateur and professional archeologists. The 1959 dig here is part of that larger story of ordinary citizens helping preserve the country's heritage.
Naming a point type after its type site is how archeologists build a shared vocabulary. When a researcher elsewhere finds a Garza point, the name ties that find back to this place. In that sense, a small spot near Post, Texas, contributes to how the whole region's Indigenous past is understood.
If you visit
Don't expect to see the dig itself. Archeological sites like this are recorded and then usually leave little visible trace, and the artifacts belong in collections, not on the surface. Treat the marker as a window: stand here, look at the land, and picture small cooking fires and people working bone and stone.
If you notice any stone flakes or other objects on the ground in this region, leave them where they lie. Collecting from archeological sites destroys the context that gives them meaning, and in many places it's against the law. Photographs and memories are the right souvenirs.
The Post area sits where the High Plains give way to broken, rugged country, and the drive around it is striking. This stop pairs well with a road trip through West Texas that looks at the region's many layers, from ancient hunters to ranching and the founding of the town of Post. For kids, it's a fun way to explain how archeologists can learn so much from things as small as an arrowhead.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Llano Estacado
Post, TX
The Cap Rock Escarpment marks the eastern edge of the Llano Estacado, or "Staked Plains," one of the world's flattest and most complete plains regions, sloping upward from Texas into New Mexico. Shaped by ancient erosion of tough caliche caprock, it was crossed in 1541 by Coronado, whose expedition marveled at an endless sea of grass. Long shunned for its scarcity of water, the Llano later supported a great ranching empire and became a leading cotton and grain region.
Mushaway Peak
Gail, TX
Rising to 2,862 feet on the West Texas plains, Mushaway Peak has carried many spellings and long served as a landmark of Native American origin. Around 1872 a village near here was a trading point where Apaches and Comanches dealt with Comancheros tied to New Mexico's markets. As U.S. Army expeditions swept the region in the mid-1870s to force the last free bands onto reservations, the peak guided soldiers, buffalo hunters, and surveyors alike — before cattlemen claimed the valley in the 1880s.
The Brazos River in Justiceburg
Justiceburg, TX
The stretch of the Brazos River near Justiceburg has drawn people for centuries, and the marker traces the river's many names across cultures — the Caddoan "Tokonohono," La Salle's "Malingne," and "La Trinidad" recorded by Spanish expeditions in 1716. Legends of parched travelers, from Coronado's men onward, finding lifesaving water gave rise to the enduring name Los Brazos de Dios, "the arms of God." Fresh water and the arrival of the Santa Fe railroad in 1910 spurred the town of Justiceburg, named for rancher Jefferson Davis Justice, who donated the townsite.
Grasslands
Grassland, TX
On the wide South Plains, this site lay along an ancient Indian trail that later carried explorers, U.S. Army columns, and — after 1880 — stagecoaches and freighters bound north from Colorado City. In 1888 Enos L. Seeds established Grasslands Ranch here, named for a Cleveland estate, building a frame house and the region's first trading post and serving as postmaster. The little community that grew up around it endures today as Grassland.