Erath residents may have noticed piles of chunky limestone rocks in their pastures and fields, some believe them to be graves. On closer examination these rocks are broken in right angles, they have a cracked, grayish cast, and stepping back the rock pile often is seen to have a depression in the center. Excavations of these rock heaps all over Texas for the last several decades have shown these features to have been rock ovens. Before overgrazing the Western Cross Timbers was a root-rich environment that Native Texans were attracted to to prepare foods through hot rock baking. Beginning about 6,000 years ago, a time when there were fewer bison in Texas, bulbs and tubers that were toxic in the raw, could be made edible by baking. The process, taking several days, began by building a fire in a pit where fired-rocks from earlier baking had been removed. The fire was covered by limestone slabs dragged up from the nearest creek. The roots were encased in grass bundles or placed between layers of prickly pear pads with the thorns burned off. The green layer was covered with stones, leaving a stem vent in the center. After the oven cooled in a few days, the now fire-cracked rocks were removed since they were too small for the next baking. The prepared foodstuffs were then ground on a metate, dried, and stored for later use. The metate used for grinding was made from sandstone, something not found naturally in Erath County, except in the northern part. It’s interesting to speculate how these essential processing tools found their way into the greater Erath County area. The sandstone slabs must have been pulled on a travois, most likely pulled by dog teams. Studies have shown that a single dog can pull 100 pounds on a travois. It’s also interesting to try to imagine what the people in the Upper Bosque River area offered in trade for the manos and metates. Geologists have remarked that Erath County is a flint-poor area, the only chert to be found is in the form of river cobbles smaller than a fist, just large enough to produce a few butchering flakes. So flint was not a source of trade-wealth. Perhaps deer grease, hides, or maybe some other perishable trade item. Or, the locals just made pilgrimages to the sandstone quarries themselves. Dan Young, Unpublished Manuscript, 2022.