The Wild Hill of Sonora

January 21, 2008
By Hal Brown
Special to LIVE!

Smack in the middle of Sonora, the Eaton Hill Wildlife Sanctuary is a 37-acre slice of West Texas as it used to be.

Travelers on Interstate 10 motor by in the thousands everyday and some undoubtedly note the large American flag flying on a hilltop as they pass. Delyse Jaeger would like to change the passing-by-the flag part. Jaeger manages the area for the Sonora Industrial Development Corp.

State highway restrictions have limited the kind of exposure the sanctuary has received so far. Only two small signs on US 277 announce its existence.

The sanctuary is threaded with three miles of trails. Located on a migratory bird flyway, the sanctuary draws thousands of birds throughout the year. Native plants abound on the rugged hillside acreage, too- Spanish dagger, Horse Crippler Cactus, Mountain Laurel and Mesquite abound—there are even ferns in shady areas where the water seeps. A replica Indian hut, traditionally-made with sotol stalks , stands by itself down from the crest of the hill. “Outlaw” campsites dot several trails. Fossils of prehistoric sea life and ancient clams stud the walking paths if you know where to look for them.

Eaton Hill is a mostly undiscovered gem, and the Sonora community has created it without outside government assistance. In 2000 the property, long the home of local historian John Eaton, came up for sale. The Texas Department of Transportation considered it for a rest stop, a water company expressed interest for a bottling plant site. There was a lot of interest in the property.

“All this kind of happened at the same time, and it was decided to purchase that property and put in hiking trails to preserve what we have,” Jaeger said.

What they had was the hilltop acreage and Eaton’s modest but spectacularly-sited home, which looks down on downtown Sonora.

Eaton “was sort of a self-appointed father of Sonora history,” Jaeger said. “I think he was a cantankerous old geezer, too.” He was also a storyteller par excellence.

More to the point for the sanctuary, his land was preserved in a mostly natural state.

“He had not had any sheep or goats grazing up there in many, many years, so we had a great microcosm of what we have in this area of the transitional hill country with plant life,” she said. “Showcasing that was part of the original idea too.”

Sonora residents, in typical West Texas fashion, wanted to go it alone while developing the sanctuary.

Sonora contractor Jimmy Cahill was a driving force behind the establishment of the sanctuary. He purchased the land when it came up for sale and donated it to the Sonora Industrial Development Corp. He worked to widen trails in the area and later helped develop some water features on the site, which was completely arid when Eaton lived there.

“The people who started this really wanted to do everything themselves rather than go out and get grants or try to become part of the Parks and Wildlife Department or the Highway Department,” Jaeger said.

“It was really a great community wide effort,” she said. “The Boy Scouts lined the trails. The Girl Scouts went up and helped plant the native plant garden, and they also planted wildflowers. The 4-H did plant identification and numbered the plants and came up with a list of what we have and what their usages are. Then the school started using it as sort of an outdoor classroom which is what we are really continuing to work toward, the educational aspect of it.”

Even the Sonora Ministerial Alliance got into the act. They sponsor a small area at the end of one of the trails featuring a cross and a plaque with the 23rd Psalm on it.

 “It’s just sort of a quiet area for reflection, prayer, whatever people’s preferences are,” Jaeger said.

One of the Ministerial Allliance members, Presbyterian pastor Louis Allen, keeps weeds on the trails cut back with his weed eater.

The sixth grade gifted and talented class did an elf owl box program, made the boxes and Jaeger and colleague Jacquie Bills put them up.

“We haven’t documented an elf owl yet,” Jaeger admits. But she and Bills have a lengthy list of species spotted on Eaton Hill.

“We have Black Capped Vireos that nest here,” Jaeger said. We have Zone Tail Hawks that just showed up there. They like to hang with the Turkey Vultures. We have right now the Bell’s Vireos. We get Painted Buntings nesting on Eaton Hill too. They’re a feather in our birding cap because they’re just so incredible. They’re the brightest colored North American bird, the most colorful. The Black Capped Vireo is an endangered species in Texas,

In the fall, Eaton Hill hosts Monarch Butterflies as they migrate to and from Mexico.

“We’re really hoping to have a Nature Center where we can do a whole lot of discovery, hands-on stuff for the school kids,” Jaeger said. “That area is also a quarry where you can see all these fossils from the shallow sea era of Texas. We’re working on the panels that say like, ‘What do you see?’ We’ll try to lead them through that thought process rather than just tell them this is what it is.

The “outlaw trail” is a nod to a notorious side of Sonora history

We have a claim to fame in Sonora of Will Carver being shot and killed in downtown Sonora. He rode with The Wild Bunch. John Eaton was a serious historian about the area, and he wrote a book about Will Carver, called Will Carver, Outlaw. We have a lot of stories. The stories attached to these interpretive panels are transcripts of stories that he told to Jimmy Cahill.

The huge hilltop flag is dedicated to the memory of the 9/11 tragedy in New York City.

“We had a really neat experience with an EMT that came down (from New York),” Jaeger said. “Jimmy had sent 1,000 pairs of mohair socks up there, and the school kids made care packages to send to Ground Zero to help all those involved with the search and recovery work.

“It was the one year anniversary of September 11 when we had the ceremony (to dedicate the flag). This EMT came on down, and was here for the dedication ceremony and stayed and stayed. There was somebody from the Fire Department too, the Fire Department of New York. It was like, ‘Let’s go and recognize the communities that went and sent this stuff big time, and our school kids really got into making up these little care packages with like toothbrushes and mohair socks.

“That was part of why these two guys came here, they wanted to see this little community that put together this huge effort in care packages. There’s a plaque there that kind of describes some of that. “

Eaton Hill’s development is nearing completion, except for some last-minute tinkering, Jaeger said.

“We’re still developing a little more of our original plans which was to have a few more interpretive panels up there, so that it’s more self guided, and just a few more little other things. We’re pretty close to saying, okay, now we’re complete.”