Like a necklace with beads of varying sizes, US 83 links a few large cities but many, many sparsely populated ones. One of Texas's least populated county seats is Paint Rock, seat of Concho County. But its courthouse is a jewel of French Second Empire style, constructed from locally quarried stone.

Paint Rock became an important shipping center for wool, hides, pecans, and mutton in the 1880s. The town takes its name from the significant array of pictographs, dating possibly to around 1300 A.D., left behind on limestone outcroppings along the Concho River north of town. The site is noted by a nearby Texas historical marker on US 83; the gates are locked to protect these priceless cultural treasures from further defacement of the kind vandals have inflicted over the years. But rock-art illustrator Forrest Kirkland made faithful renderings in the 1930s, and his records are readily accessible in W. W. Newcomb's The Rock Art of Texas Indians (University of Texas Press, reprinted 1996).

Paint Rock, Texas (pop. 267) bears witness to earlier avenues of commerce in the sheep and goat industry -- still a mainstay of the region.

Eden: A garden along the highway

Garden of Eden, Texas

Among the other treasures tourists can see in this part of the Concho Valley is the Garden of Eden. (If your town carried a name like that, wouldn't you just have to create a beauty spot for the public to enjoy?) Most times, the garden just south of Eden on US 83 invites the weary traveler to stop and appreciate a vibrant palette of color and texture along a series of pleasant paths. Today when I stop by, the blossoms have faded, the butterflies have fled for the season, and the sky is still forbidding, but a moment's rest is welcome in any case. I've chosen a photo from an earlier, sunnier trip through the area instead.

Menard

Historic Ditch Walk, Menard, Texas

Known for its abundant pecans -- you can buy freshly packaged nuts from many local shellers -- Menard is also a wonderful, historic city for walking. You can, in fact, follow the stone-lined course of the 1876 irrigation canal, a project first dug by the Spanish in the mid-1700s and a source of water for area agriculture even today.

To learn more about the presence of the Spanish in this area, you'll have to travel just a few miles off US 83 to the reconstructed Presidio de San Sabá. Though one of the main purposes of the 1757 presidio was to lend protection to the Mission Santa

Presidio de San Sabá (photo from 2013)

Cruz de San Sabá a league and a half away, the mission was burned and destroyed by Indian attackers only a year later, and the friars were killed. The stone ruin of the presidio today stands as a stark reminder of the violence that ensued when Europeans arrived in the new world in search of gold, God, and glory.

The Hill Country and Junction
The cloud cover stays with me as I drive the twists and turns of Kerr and Kimble Counties, rugged land that these days is a haven for hunters, but in years past hid thieves and brigands. The region's history is described in Peter Rose's The Reckoning (Texas Tech University Press, 2012): "Isolated by geology and passed over by development, the vast, waterless tablelands of the Edwards Plateau of Texas became the stage for one of the great nineteenth-century dramas of western justice. In 1873, opportunistic Anglo-Celtic cattlemen and homesteaders, protected by little other than personal firearms and their own bravado, began settling the stream-laced rangelands east of the plateau. An insidious criminal element soon followed: a family-based tribal confederation of frontier outlaws took root in the canyonlands around the forks of the Llano River, in unorganized and lawless Kimble County."

Want to know more? The Kimble County Historical Commission is a trove of stories. Their historical museum in Junction welcomes visitors on weekday mornings and afternoons.

Choices, choices . . .

I pull into in Junction, where US 83 rushes down from the heights to cross the wide concrete lanes of Interstate 10 and the scenic reaches of the South Llano River, too late for the museum. But I'm in plenty of time to pop into Lum's to pick up a chopped brisket sandwich for dinner. Have them wrap it up to go, or sit down and share a picnic table with the locals -- either way the barbecue is as much a tradition here as tubing the river, or taking part in Texas Tech's long-standing Intersession programs in biology, photography, creative writing, and more, at the university's rustic campus around the bend.

The Deer Horn Tree on Junction's main street has been a tradition since 1968.

At the Short Stop on Main Street, the Greyhound bus is running late on its afternoon route to San Antonio. Johnnie, the store manager, has his hands full; he's doing a booming business in sodas and convenience foods, as passengers prepare to board. The bus makes two runs daily westbound to El Paso through here and two back to San Antonio, he says. He enjoys the banter with his regular customers, and he finds the pace of serving the bus riders less demanding than when he ran a similar concession along I-40 in Amarillo. And he misses the change of seasons in the Panhandle.

The routing for US 83 tries to force travelers onto the Interstate for a couple of miles between Junction exits, before the US highway peels off again for points south. But don't be lured in. Instead, a short jog through town on Main Street, continuing on County Road 481 after you pass the restaurants and RV parks that are so popular during river-floating weather, will link you right back into US 83 and is well worth the diversion.

Driving under the trestle bridge at dusk, I spot a herd of whitetails grazing lazily beside the aquamarine water. The big buck turns and stares me down, daring me to snare him with my camera -- though the light is fading fast. I turn back up the ramp and cross the river, gunning the Chevy's engine to climb the mountain road on the opposite bank, and head up to the scenic overlook.

Flag overlooking Junction_ Texas

To the north and west, the curtain of cloud is rising, at the end of this long day's journey. A layer of sun edges through. In the valley far below, a train snakes along the tracks, the Interstate carries its burden of trucks and passenger vehicles, and a small plane touches down on the airstrip north of town. Smoke rises from a fire in the hills. Lights twinkle on. Another day is done.

View from overlook outside Junction, Texas