HistoricSiteMarkers
Pre-Contact America

Indian Sites on Cypress Creek

Center Point, Kerr County, Texas

Marker Inscription

Named "Sturdy Oak Farm" for an ancient live oak, this property has belonged to the Lich family since 1879. Mr. and Mrs. Ernst Perry Lich became the owners in 1945. Three significant prehistoric sites on this property indicate its importance for human habitation for at least 10,000 years. Tools from the sites represent several archaeological periods from Paleo-Indian through Archaic times. The sites are near spring-fed pools in Cypress Creek. Artifacts discovered at the three locations include arrowheads, knives, beads, and stone tools left by nomadic tribes that once wandered this area. (1978)

Erected by Texas Historical Commission

The Story

On land the Lich family has held since 1879, three archaeological sites beside the spring-fed pools of Cypress Creek record human presence stretching back at least 10,000 years. Tools recovered here span the Paleo-Indian through Archaic periods, and finds include arrowheads, knives, beads, and stone implements. They mark the camps of nomadic peoples drawn, like all who followed, to this reliable water.

Why it matters

Sites like these anchor American history in a deep Indigenous past, showing that the land was home to skilled hunter-gatherers for millennia before written records began.

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