The Luna Jacal or Luna's Jacal was the residence of Gilberto Luna, a Mexican pioneer farmer in the area of

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

that would become

Big Bend National Park Big Bend National Park is a List of national parks of the United States, national park of the United States located in West Texas, bordering Mexico. The park has national significance as the largest protected area of Chihuahuan Desert topograph ...

. The

jacal The jacal (; Mexican Spanish from Nahuatl ''xacalli'' contraction of ''xamitl calli''; literally "hut") is an adobe-style housing structure historically found throughout parts of the Southwestern United States and Mexico. This type of structure w ...

, an indigenous

Tejano Tejanos ( , ) are descendants of Texas Creoles and Mestizos who settled in Texas before its admission as an American state. The term is also sometimes applied to Texans of Mexican descent. Etymology The word ''Tejano'', with a ''J'' instead ...

dwelling suited to the desert environment, was built about 1890 with a low sandstone and limestone wall about , with forked poles set upright into the walls, supporting roof poles. The house backs up to a large boulder. A heavier line of poles extends the length of the jacal. The roof was made of

ocotillo ''Fouquieria splendens'', commonly known as ocotillo, is a plant indigenous to the Mojave, Sonoran, Chihuahuan and Colorado deserts in the Southwestern United States (southern California, southern Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas), and nor ...

branches weighted down with earth and stones, presently replaced with an inappropriate soil-cement roof. Luna raised a large family at the jacal, peacefully coexisting with otherwise hostile

Comanche The Comanche (), or Nʉmʉnʉʉ (, 'the people'), are a Tribe (Native American), Native American tribe from the Great Plains, Southern Plains of the present-day United States. Comanche people today belong to the List of federally recognized tri ...

who used the Alamo Creek area as a war trail. Luna died there in 1947 at age 108 or 109. Luna's jacal was placed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

on November 8, 1974. It was restored in 1971 and again stabilized in 1983.

Luna and the Comanche War Trail

The write-up for the National Register of Historic Places states While a popular story associated with the jacal, some doubt exists that Gilberto Luna lived at the jacal while the Comanche War Trail was active. The NRHP write-up uses the ''Road Guide to Paved and Improved Dirt Roads of Big Bend National Park'' as source material, originally published in 1980. As late as the 1987 revision of the guide this same verbiage is intact, but in the 2010 revision of the guide, the verbiage had been removed. In the book ''Exploring The Big Bend Country'' an interview by Peter Koch with a grandson of Luna, Demencio C. Luna Jr., puts Luna's arrival at Alamo Wash after the close of the Comanche Trail: The book ''A Guide to Hispanic Texas ''Simons and Hoyt. A Guide to Hispanic Texas, 1992, p.142 says Luna's Jacal was built about 1900, which agrees with Gilberto Luna's grandson's claim, and years after the last band of Comanches moved to the Fort Sill reservation in Oklahoma in 1874–75.

References

Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Texas Houses in Brewster County, Texas National Register of Historic Places in Big Bend National Park 1890 establishments in Texas Buildings and structures completed in 1890 {{BrewsterCountyTX-NRHP-stub

Luna and the Comanche War Trail

See also

References