This article was contributed by Kelly Skovbjerg, President of the Hill Country Archeological Association. A longtime Boerne resident and former Director of the Patrick Heat Public Library, Kelly has spent decades immersed in history, research, and education, and now brings that passion to local archaeological work across the Hill Country.
Have you ever wondered what’s below your feet? Do you wander the land looking for stone tools and arrow points? Then the Hill Country Archeological Association (HCAA) is the group for you!
The HCAA is made up of avocational and professional archeologists working together to study and preserve the Texas Hill Country’s prehistoric and historical heritage in 7 counties. HCAA surveys and records details about archeologically significant sites before they are lost due to collecting, erosion, and the rapidly increasing development of the Texas Hill Country.
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The HCAA offers its archeological activities as a community service and works with area landowners’ permission to survey their property for archeological sites with the understanding that all artifacts found on their property belong to them. If an archeological site is identified on their property, the property’s location will remain confidential.
Since July 2018, over 40 HCAA members have investigated through excavation and lab recording a rich, multi-component site (41KR754) in western Kerr County, Texas. The site is located on private land and rests on a terrace of the North Fork of the Guadalupe River. The site has produced a rich assemblage of lithic artifacts, faunal material (including bison remains), and trade items.
These trade items include Caddo pottery, obsidian from Idaho, hematite spheres, and quartz crystal, possibly from Arkansas. Diagnostic point types recovered in situ suggest recurring occupations at the site from the late Paleoindian period, approximately 10,665 cal. years B.P., to the Late Prehistoric Toyah phase, 650-250 years B.P.
To educate the public about archeology, HCAA holds bimonthly lectures on topics of regional and often global significance.
Christopher Lintz will give a presentation on the WPA excavation of 15 vertebrate fossil bone bed sites dating from 10 to 2 million years ago conducted from 1936 to 1940 under the direction of C. S. Johnston. The presentation will briefly focus on geology and late Cenozoic Epoch environment and animals of the Texas panhandle and then on Mr. Johnston’s remarkable career, his involvement in securing WPA funds for the paleontological and archeological projects in the panhandle, and the politics leading to his death at the age of 40.
Work at the Cita Canyon site investigated six stratified bone beds from 130-foot-tall canyon walls. The site yielded more than a dozen new fossil species attributed to the Blancan Fauna Assemblage dating ca. 4.5 to 2 million years old.
Little has been published about the Cita Canyon WPA site work. Mr. Johnston submitted a 187-page manuscript for his Ph.D. dissertation, but he died before defending his work, and his study was never published.
The presentation is Saturday, March 21, 2026, at Riverside Nature Center, 150 Francisco Lemos, Kerrville, 78028. This event is FREE and open to the public. Doors open at 12:30pm, with a brief member meeting beginning at 1:00pm followed by the presentation.
Membership helps the HCAA continue its important work. Membership levels range from Student to Lifetime. Find out more at https://hcarcheology.org/.