| HISTORY THE ENCHANTED ROCK
AN ILLUSTRATED
HISTORY
by IRA KENNEDY
Sparsely scattered across the
continent are monuments, natural in origin. Some are beautiful, others bizarre; a few
reach deeper than the eye or the mind to touch the human psyche. They are named holy.
Enchanted Rock, which rises out of the surrounding landscape like a megalithic monument is
such a place.
AMERICAN INDIAN PROPHECIES
A Brief History on the Future of America
by IRA KENNEDY
American Indian Prophecies is not about the end of
the world but, rather, a change of worlds--the beginning of a new Earth cycle. The
prophecies of Black Elk, Wovoka, Rolling Thunder, Lame Deer, Sun Bear, and the Hopi are
used to examine the differences between Western and Native American world views and their
relationship to the future.
MEDICINE MAN HILL
by IRA KENNEDY
Seeking legendary
silver mines in La Lomeria, or the Hill Country, a Spanish expedition led by don
Bernardo de Miranda, lieutenant-general of the province of Texas, set out from the
presidio of San Antonio de Bejar in February, 17, 1756. Known as the Miranda expedition,
the twenty-three adventurers were under orders from Governor Barrios to locate two silver
mines rumored to be in the area. Miranda did find one, known as Cerro del Almagre or the
Hill of Red Ochre; and in the process he came within sight of Cerro de Santiago or the
Hill of the Sacred One. At least one historian has suggested Cerro de Santiago might have
been Enchanted Rock, while others discount the possibility. The Hill of Red Ochre is
believed by some to be the Lost Bowie Mine.
THE TEXAS
CHEROKEE
by IRA KENNEDY
 Woven
into the fabric of personal history is the image of the American Indian. When I was a
child my grandmother revealed to me, in a secretive voice, that I was of Cherokee-Irish
descent; that my great-grandmother, Sarah Jane Kelly, was a full-blood Texas Cherokee. The
revelation filled me with excitement and wonder. Only many years later did I realize that
the secretive, almost conspiratorial tone, was shaped by generations of fear, for in Sarah
Jane’s day, Indians were an undesirable element in Texas.
GERMAN INTELLECTUALS ON
THE TEXAS FRONTIER by IRA KENNEDY
The Texas frontier of
the 1850s would seem an unlikely place to find communities with a passion for literature,
philosophy, music, and conversations in Latin. Just as unlikely would expectations be very
high for communes in the Hill Country attempting to establish utopia along the Llano
River. But, in this area, the communities of Castell, Schoenburg, Bettina, and
Leiningen were hotbeds for intellectual conversations and revolutionary social
experimentation. These communities were the first to settle the Fisher-Miller Grant
located between the Llano and San Saba Rivers
The Republic of Texas
1845 - THE
TWILIGHT YEAR
by IRA KENNEDY
Rumors, gossip, lies and dreams. Conspiracies,
intrigues, plots, and counter plots. This must be the Republic of Texas. From 1830 to
1845, the eyes of the world turned toward Texas. Stretching from the Rio Grande to
Wyoming, and from Louisiana to Santa Fe (New Mexico), Texas was enormous, and her
potential to expand all the way to the Pacific Ocean was under serious discussion.
THE BEGINNING OF THE
END
by IRA KENNEDY
Part 1 & 2 of 2 Parts
Lamar’s dream to mark ‘with the sword" the western
boundary of Texas at the Pacific Ocean was as foolhardy as it was visionary. When Anson
Jones ascended to the presidency of the Republic on the first Monday of September, 1844,
he sought to attain by treaty what was impossible with the sword. PART 2 OF 2 PARTS
JIM
NICHOLS by IRA KENNEDY
Jim Nichols vs a secesh, ring click, paper collar, kid glove gang of cyoties. A former
Texas Ranger faces up to the Confederates in Blanco County.
THE LOST SAN SABA MINES
Compiled and edited by IRA
KENNEDY
Reprints from articles found in the San Saba News circa 1890: Since the 1700's, stories of abandoned or lost
Spanish mines and buried treasure in San Saba and adjacent counties have fired the
imaginations of thousands of treasure seekers. The following items, from the San Saba
News, convey well the excitement these stories generated around the turn of the
century.
POETRY
ART
IN NATURE
TOURIN' TEXAS
PHOTOMONTAGELEGACY IN STONE:
A Primer on Texas Arrowheads
by IRA KENNEDY
The human history of the Americas has its roots deep in the soil of Texas.
Lacking a written record it is not a history in the traditional sense of the word, but it
is a cronological record none-the-less. This documentation exists in the form of
inobtrusive stone artifacts lost, buried, or abandoned by their creators. Although
the most abundant of these flint tools are scrapers, handaxes and other utilitarian
artifacts, the "arrowheads" and "bird points" are the most commonly
understood and sought after. Illustraion by Ira Kennedy. |
FEATURES
THE MUSES
OF BULVERDE
On the Texas Frontier During
the 1950s
by IRA KENNEDY
Pioneer Texas was alive and well in the early 1950’s.
I know because I was living that life from time to time, in my 11th and the 12th
year. My mother, Lucille, would take me from our home in Blanco to the home of the Muses
on a 900-acre ranch near Bulverde. Aunt Mary and Uncle Henry Muse, and their son, who
everybody called Uncle Bud, would take me in for a week or two at a stretch during the
summers and on other occasions during the year.
FROM
A NATIVE SON by IRA KENNEDY
ECLIPSE: by IRA KENNEDY A look at contemporary
cultural transformation through the lense of mythology.
THE
LAST WINTER COUNT
by IRA KENNEDY
"If you want the gospel truth about them early days and my part in them you
best get a good hold on that chair ‘cause my life was a wild ride commencing the
moment the gate swung open." So begins the The Narrative of John Green Kelly...
LLANO MAN by
IRA KENNEDY
Over thirty thousand years ago, while
Cro-Magnon man carved sculptures in Europe, Llano Man was shaping the stone heads of
Malakov right here in Texas.
PREFACE to Dreaming the Myth
Onward
by IRA KENNEDY
"Early in the morning of August 15, 1987, phone calls started coming into The
Highlander newspaper in Marble Falls, Texas. People wanted information on the massive
convergence of people to sacred sites worldwide on August 16-17, 1987 -- rumor held that
Enchanted Rock, some 60 miles distant, would be one of the principal sites in Texas."
 DREAMING THE MYTH ONWARD
by IRA KENNEDY
"Enchanted Rock, the holy mountain of Central Texas, was one of many sacred landmarks
around the world where thousands converged to witness the dawn of a new epoch...
That the Convergence happened at all is a ray of hope in an otherwise very dark world. In
a culture conditioned to taking the daily dose of vitamins in a single pill or
assimilating the news of the world in a half hour, the difficulty of explaining what it
all means is overwhelming."
December
2021: The Mayan Calendar
by IRA KENNEDY
"According to Mayan chronology, the present age started on 12 August
3114 BC and is to end on 22 December 2012. At that time the Earth as we know it is again
to be destroyed by catastrophic earthquakes." Reading that it’s easy for
folks to fall into the notion that "The End is at Hand." But wait. Before
we start hunkering down lets take a look backward and review exactly what did happen
around 3,000 BC.
THE HIDDEN
HARVEST:
by IRA KENNEDY
I first learned some of the Indian uses of native plants from my grandmother, Rosa
Daniels. And Grandma Rosa learned what she knew from her full-blood Cherokee mother, Sarah
Jane Kelly. I was late in learning that Grandma Rosa taught me more than a list of used
for a specific plant. I found that a proper understanding of her knowledge gradually
altered my relationship to nature, and through that, my view of the world.
PANNING
FOR TEXAS GOLD
by IRA KENNEDY
If you're going to search of gold in
Texas, first you need to know where to look. Next you need to know how to get at the
stuff. And last but not least you need to remember, in the words of Mark Twain, "A
gold mine is a hole in the ground with a liar at the top."
THERE'S
(some) GOLD IN THEM THERE HILLS by
IRA KENNEDY
Tales of lost mines are part of the Hill Country heritage. The legends
persist at least in part because there have been virtually continuous mining operations in
the Centeral Mineral Region since the time of the Spanish arrival in the Hill Country.
BEDROCK
METATES and METATE, MANO, and MYTHOLOGY
by IRA KENNEDY : This page includes an article on the location of bedrock
metates at Enchanted Rock, and the sacred nature of the grinding stones of Native
Americans.
HILL
COUNTRY PEARLS
Born in Darkness,
They Share Their Colors With The Stars
by IRA KENNEDY
Wayne Casey emptied
the contents of a brown paper bag. Thousands of pearls, carefully sorted in plastic bags
according to size, color, and shape, covered the kitchen table. The white, pink, lavender,
and purple gems, with an estimated value of $55,000, seemed to emit an inner light. They
were the result of one summer's diving in lakes throughout the Hill Country.
THE STORYTELLER
by IRA KENNEDY
From a rock shelter
halfway up the north face of the bald granite mountain the old Kiowa saw them as they rode
in from the northwest. He determined they were four loud and careless young Comanche
warriors. He had observed them for the better part of a day as they followed the Pinta
Trail to a landmark called Cerro de Santiago, Hill of the Sacred One.
VISITORS
GUIDE TO THE CENTER OF THE WORLD
by IRA KENNEDY A
primer for your day trip to Enchanted Rock State Natural area with photographs. Here
you'll find another panorama of Thomas Evan's mural.
HILL COUNTRY PARKS The only way to deal with
the Texas summer is to find water then wade, swim, tube, dive, or float. This is how, for
12,000 years, Texans managed to cool down in the hottest times.
THE
MISADVENTURES OF LATER BILLY
The links to Later Billy's sound
files. Written and performed by Ira.
LATER BILLY COMES HOME by
Ira Kennedy and Holly Scott
The regulars that sat at the bar gave Later Billy that look they always give each
other when they bring their women into the place during the day. Most of them were
supposed to be somewhere else. Like, maybe, working. At that moment there was a crack of
lightning and thunder. Then the power all over town went down.
THAT
AIN'T A WORD by IRA KENNEDY
What happened when Later Billy tried his hand at the writing life,
CHICKEN RANCHING by IRA KENNEDY
I'm not sure we'll ever see a single egg.
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