Lost Maples State Natural Area
Encyclopedia
State park
State parks are parks or other protected areas managed at the federated state level within those nations which use "state" as a political subdivision. State parks are typically established by a state to preserve a location on account of its natural beauty, historic interest, or recreational...
in the Edwards Plateau
Edwards Plateau
The Edwards Plateau is a region of west-central Texas which is bounded by the Balcones Fault to the south and east, the Llano Uplift and the Llano Estacado to the north, and the Pecos River and Chihuahuan Desert to the west. San Angelo, Austin, San Antonio and Del Rio roughly outline the area...
of Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
Location
Lost Maples State Natural Area is located about 5 miles (8 km) north of Vanderpool, TexasVanderpool, Texas
Vanderpool is a small unincorporated community in Bandera County in the U.S. state of Texas, in the Texas Hill Country, which is part of the Edwards Plateau. It lies west of Bandera. Hunting, ranching and tourism are chief contributors to the regional economy. Vanderpool had a population of 22 in...
and 71 miles (114 km) west of San Antonio
San Antonio, Texas
San Antonio is the seventh-largest city in the United States of America and the second-largest city within the state of Texas, with a population of 1.33 million. Located in the American Southwest and the south–central part of Texas, the city serves as the seat of Bexar County. In 2011,...
. The park sits along the Sabinal River
Sabinal River
The Sabinal River is a river in Texas. During exceptional drought large portions of this river may flow underground, with scattered pools of surface water.-References:**USGS Hydrologic Unit Map - State of Texas...
in western Bandera County
Bandera County, Texas
Bandera County, formed in 1856 from Bexar and Uvalde counties, is a county located on the Edwards Plateau in the U.S. state of Texas. As of 2000, the population is 17,645. Its county seat is Bandera. Bandera is named for the Spanish word for flag...
and far eastern Real County.
History
The land for Lost Maples State Natural Area was acquired by the state of Texas in 1973 and 1974, and the park was opened to the public in 1979. In 1980, the Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service made the park a National Natural LandmarkNational Natural Landmark
The National Natural Landmark program recognizes and encourages the conservation of outstanding examples of the natural history of the United States. It is the only natural areas program of national scope that identifies and recognizes the best examples of biological and geological features in...
.
This area along the upper Sabinal River was inhabited in prehistoric times. The recorded history of the area, beginning with Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
explorations in the 17th century, identified a number of Indian
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
groups, including the Apache
Apache
Apache is the collective term for several culturally related groups of Native Americans in the United States originally from the Southwest United States. These indigenous peoples of North America speak a Southern Athabaskan language, which is related linguistically to the languages of Athabaskan...
, Lipan Apache and Comanche
Comanche
The Comanche are a Native American ethnic group whose historic range consisted of present-day eastern New Mexico, southern Colorado, northeastern Arizona, southern Kansas, all of Oklahoma, and most of northwest Texas. Historically, the Comanches were hunter-gatherers, with a typical Plains Indian...
.
Geology
Much of the park's limestoneLimestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
bedrock
Bedrock
In stratigraphy, bedrock is the native consolidated rock underlying the surface of a terrestrial planet, usually the Earth. Above the bedrock is usually an area of broken and weathered unconsolidated rock in the basal subsoil...
is exposed on elevated terrain, which has a shallow, discontinuous cover of dark gray stony clay (Eckrant series). Most valley bottoms have deep, dark brown silty clay (Krum series) or clay loam (Pratley series). Deposits of gravel, sand, and loam (Orif-Boerne association) lie within a few hundred feet of the Sabinal River. All of these soils have free calcium carbonate
Calcium carbonate
Calcium carbonate is a chemical compound with the formula CaCO3. It is a common substance found in rocks in all parts of the world, and is the main component of shells of marine organisms, snails, coal balls, pearls, and eggshells. Calcium carbonate is the active ingredient in agricultural lime,...
throughout their profiles and are moderately alkaline. Despite a high clay content in most cases, poorly drained soils are too inextensive to be mapped.
Fauna
Mammals in the park include species which are found over much of the United States -- Gray FoxGray Fox
The gray fox is a mammal of the order Carnivora ranging throughout most of the southern half of North America from southern Canada to the northern part of South America...
, White-tailed Deer
White-tailed Deer
The white-tailed deer , also known as the Virginia deer or simply as the whitetail, is a medium-sized deer native to the United States , Canada, Mexico, Central America, and South America as far south as Peru...
, Raccoon
Raccoon
Procyon is a genus of nocturnal mammals, comprising three species commonly known as raccoons, in the family Procyonidae. The most familiar species, the common raccoon , is often known simply as "the" raccoon, as the two other raccoon species in the genus are native only to the tropics and are...
and Bobcat
Bobcat
The bobcat is a North American mammal of the cat family Felidae, appearing during the Irvingtonian stage of around 1.8 million years ago . With twelve recognized subspecies, it ranges from southern Canada to northern Mexico, including most of the continental United States...
. They share the terrain with southern species such as Armadillo
Armadillo
Armadillos are New World placental mammals, known for having a leathery armor shell. Dasypodidae is the only surviving family in the order Cingulata, part of the superorder Xenarthra along with the anteaters and sloths. The word armadillo is Spanish for "little armored one"...
and Javelina. Bird life shows a blend of eastern and western species with Carolina Chickadee
Carolina Chickadee
The Carolina Chickadee, Poecile carolinensis, is a small passerine bird in the tit family Paridae. Often, it is still placed in the genus Parus with most other tits, but mtDNA cytochrome b sequence data and morphology suggest that separating Poecile more adequately expresses these birds'...
and Western Scrub-Jay among the common examples. The Sabinal River maintains surface water even during exceptional drought, so fish and other aquatic animals are present.
Flora
Among the treeTree
A tree is a perennial woody plant. It is most often defined as a woody plant that has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground on a single main stem or trunk with clear apical dominance. A minimum height specification at maturity is cited by some authors, varying from 3 m to...
s are American Sycamore (Platanus occidentalis), Bald Cypress (Taxodium distichum
Taxodium distichum
Taxodium distichum is a species of conifer native to the southeastern United States.-Characteristics:...
), Black Walnut (Juglans nigra), Pecan
Pecan
The pecan , Carya illinoinensis, is a species of hickory, native to south-central North America, in Mexico from Coahuila south to Jalisco and Veracruz, in the United States from southern Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, and Indiana east to western Kentucky, southwestern Ohio, North Carolina, South...
(Carya illinoinensis), Green Ash (Fraxinus pennsylvanica), Black Willow (Salix nigra), Chinkapin Oak (Quercus muehlenbergii), Lacey Oak (Quercus laceyi), Texas Red Oak (Quercus buckleyi
Quercus buckleyi
Quercus buckleyi, commonly known as Texas Red Oak or Buckley's oak, is a species of flowering plant in the Fagaceae family. It is endemic to the southern Great Plains of the United States. It is smaller and more likely to be multi-trunked than its close relative, the Shumard Oak...
), Juniper
Juniper
Junipers are coniferous plants in the genus Juniperus of the cypress family Cupressaceae. Depending on taxonomic viewpoint, there are between 50-67 species of juniper, widely distributed throughout the northern hemisphere, from the Arctic, south to tropical Africa in the Old World, and to the...
, Florida Basswood (Tilia caroliniana) and Bigtooth Maple (Acer grandidentatum) (the latter of which was discovered far removed from any maple forest, and thus gave the area the name "lost maples"). The maple colors well in some autumns; the Texas red oak gives an impressive autumn display almost every year. This park is most crowded when the fall colors peak in November. Evidence suggests that the maples that give the park its name are relict
Relict
A relict is a surviving remnant of a natural phenomenon.* In biology a relict is an organism that at an earlier time was abundant in a large area but now occurs at only one or a few small areas....
s: remnants of a larger, more widespread population that flourished during the cooler and wetter climate of the last glacial period. Today, soil
Soil
Soil is a natural body consisting of layers of mineral constituents of variable thicknesses, which differ from the parent materials in their morphological, physical, chemical, and mineralogical characteristics...
s and microclimate
Microclimate
A microclimate is a local atmospheric zone where the climate differs from the surrounding area. The term may refer to areas as small as a few square feet or as large as many square miles...
control their present distribution.