It was an early April morning.  The skies were lightly overcast with only a slight southerly breeze.  It promised to be an exciting morning outdoors looking for birds.

         After eating a hearty breakfast at Hubbard’s, a dozen or so birders piled into several vehicles and headed south on SH 37, a hilly, picturesque route that slices through some of the most beautiful country in the state.  Spring wildflowers blanket green pastures while Scissor-tailed Flycatchers keep watch from barbed wire fences.  Our destination was the headwaters of Lake Cypress Springs on Big Cypress Creek.  Our ranks included some locals, including Mount Vernon mayor Kathy Shelton, and some out of town guests.   But we were all here to witness first hand the nature of an earlier Texas in the Franklin County Historical Association’s latest nature preserve acquired through a cooperative lease with the Franklin County Water District.
         And what a nature preserve it is.  To people speeding past on the bridge over Big Cypress Creek, the wet swampy bottomland hardwoods may seem like nothing more than a good place to get a bad case of chiggers and ticks.  In fact, for many, this area would be better off if bulldozers spent several days pushing trees.  Shame, shame… 
         Perched on the bluffs along the north end of the river, the 432 acre site is home to some of the tallest remaining trees in the county, and some remarkable birds as well.   Walking past the gate and along the simple path that leads farther and farther into this magnificent leafy green cathedral, birds were singing all around us.  There was a male Kentucky Warbler—probably just in the night before from spending the winter in Central America—boldly advertising for a mate.  Once common in wooded river bottoms in eastern North America, this five and half inch long miracle in yellow and black has suffered greatly as tall trees have been pushed further and further into our memory.   As long as beautiful places like this continue to exist, perhaps they will remain.
         Around mid-morning the clouds broke open and sunlight came pouring through the canopy illuminating the tall red buckeyes that lie situated along the bluff overlooking the bottoms as though they were deliberately planted by some long lost inhabitants.   Although common throughout the eastern third of Texas in moist, sandy soils, the red buckeye is a small, slow – growing tree and these are some of the tallest specimens I have ever seen.    Perhaps, I speculated aloud, because of their apparent age, the Caddo Indians planted them here to have a supply handy.  Although the red buckeye is poisonous, the Indians leached the seeds in flowing water for several days, or buried them in sand over the winter, to remove the toxins. 
          As Jim Johnson correctly pointed out, these steep bluffs were once home to Caddo Indians because they could be near water and not get flooded out when the seasonal rains came.   What may surprise some is that plants growing on these sites are extremely valuable because they can provide clues about Indian foods.  Examining the ground I found several small American hog peanuts, a delicate vine in the bean family with a dainty white flower that has one edible peanut - like seed that grows underground. When boiled it was a staple for the Indians of Eastern North America. Yet gathering them was so tedious, however, they often let small rodents gather them and then raided their nests.   Today it is often found growing near old Indian campsites.
         Sites like this are important, not just because of the birds they shelter, but because without them how do we experience the nature of an earlier Texas, right here in our own backyard?