Border Wall Extension in Texas Raises Fears for 5,700-Year-Old Lower Pecos Rock Art
In the canyons west of Del Rio, Texas, where the Pecos River empties into the Rio Grande, prehistoric paintings cling to limestone walls in long, weathered bands of pigment. Now, plans to extend the Mexico–US border wall through parts of Val Verde County are prompting warnings that construction could imperil one of North America’s most significant rock art landscapes.
Local residents say they have received federal notices indicating that a wall could run across private property in the region’s steep, remote terrain. Among them is landowner Raymond Skiles Jr., who told San Antonio television station KSAT that the proposed alignment could cut directly through land near the river corridor.
The Lower Pecos region is home to hundreds of murals in the Pecos River style, with some works believed to date back as far as 5,700 years. Archaeologist Carolyn Boyd of Texas State University, who founded the Shumla Archaeological Research & Education Center, has emphasized the scale and complexity of the paintings, which include more than 200 known murals across the area.
A study co-authored by Boyd last year identified a roughly 4,000-year span during which the murals were produced, underscoring that the canyon walls were revisited and repainted across many generations. In comments previously shared with Live Science, Boyd described the sites as an “ancient library,” and noted that some murals are monumental in size, stretching more than 100 feet long and reaching 20 feet tall, with dense fields of carefully rendered figures.
The stakes are heightened by the region’s formal recognition. Boyd has pointed to the Lower Pecos designation as a National Historic Landmark in 2021 as evidence of its exceptional cultural value. Yet she has also warned that the same federal government that acknowledged the area’s importance could now be positioned to damage it. “Yet, here we are today — faced with the possibility that the very government that assigned this designation (and) recognised its importance — may be responsible for its destruction through the (border) wall,” she told KSAT.
Beyond the question of where a wall might be placed lies a second concern: what construction itself could do to fragile rock surfaces. Boyd estimates that around 80 known rock art sites would fall south of the proposed wall, with an additional 13 located within 500 meters of it. Skiles and other residents have expressed fears that vibrations from heavy machinery and related work could destabilize rock faces and cause irreversible damage to the paintings.
US Customs and Border Protection, which oversees border infrastructure, said in a statement to KSAT that it has carried out outreach and environmental assessments for the project and that it intends to mitigate impacts on cultural and environmental resources. But skepticism remains among those closest to the sites. Boyd and Skiles both said they were not aware of any public outreach connected to the wall’s proposed construction in the area.
For now, the project’s schedule is unsettled. The timeline for extending the wall across Val Verde County remains uncertain, and negotiations tied to the broader Big Bend segment are ongoing. In the meantime, researchers and landowners are left with an unresolved question: whether a landscape that has preserved painted histories for millennia can withstand the pressures of contemporary border policy.
