STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- RESIDENTS RECEIVE LETTERS: Residents in Val Verde County, west of Del Rio, received letters from government detailing the possibility of a physical wall
- WHAT’S AT STAKE: Cave paintings, which date back thousands of years and are considered some of the best in North America, could be damaged
- WHAT’S NEXT: It’s unclear what the timeline will be for border wall construction, if any wall is built at all
The letter
LANGTRY, TEXAS – Raymond Skiles Jr., whose family has owned land near Langtry since the 1940s, recently received a letter in the mail. He shared the letter with KSAT 12 News, which appeared to indicate the federal government’s plans to construct a physical border wall directly through his property.
“There’s been no communication verbally. No one to pick up the phone and give a call,” Skiles said. “The documents don’t say you can discuss this or make suggestions for improvement by calling some person."
Many others like Skiles along the Rio Grande, from Big Bend up to Lake Amistad, have received correspondence from the government. Skiles, whose permanent home is in Alpine, believes the verbiage and letters change depending on where you live.
The Big Bend region has had quite a bit of pushback, including from state lawmakers. While this part of Val Verde County is considered part of the Big Bend region, those who live here feel as though they are getting lost in the shuffle.
“It appears there’s more attention being given here for — ‘By God, we’re going to build a wall’ — as opposed to a little further upstream,“ Skiles said. ”There’s uncertainty that has not been taken off the table."
Why it matters
This area of Texas is rugged and desolate. Skiles’ property, which sits directly next to the Judge Roy Bean Museum, is historic in several ways.
After a trip down to the Rio Grande, Skiles said he would lose access to it should a wall be built.
Skiles took KSAT to several cliff overhangs just off the river, where humans have lived for thousands of years.
“We’re standing on human deposited debris: ash from fires, fiber from all kinds of purposes that were woven. And even all these rocks that are kind of fist-sized that are fractured,” Skiles said. “We call them ‘fire-ring’ rocks.”
However, the crown jewel of this area is the rock art that these pre-historic societies left behind.
Hundreds of vivid painting exist throughout the lower Pecos River where it meets the Rio Grande.
“The oldest of the murals: the Pecos River-style, which are really the most abundant —and I consider the most majestic of all the rock art traditions — were first produced around 5,700 years ago,” said Dr. Carolyn Boyd, an archeologist and founder of Shumla, whose goal is to decode, study and preserve the art. ″Some of these sites span 100 feet long, hundreds of feet long and 30 feet in height. But what’s really astonishing is that artist continued to keep producing this rock art traditions for more than 4,000 years. So, think about that for just a minute: that’s about 175 generations of human experience."
Additionally, the government has also deemed the art important.
“In January of 2021, the federal government designated this region, the Lower Pecos Archeological District, as a National Historic Landmark,” said Boyd. “Yet, here we are today — faced with the possibility that the very government that assigned this designation (and) recognized its importance — may be responsible for its destruction through the (border) wall.“
What are the concerns
On a normal day, those who study and preserve the art said it is extremely fragile.
“Quite often, these cave paintings do spall off. And nature, over several thousands of years, has damaged them that way,” Skiles said. “You add dynamite or whatever blasting is required to the 35-foot steel bollard wall, and I have no doubt that those will be seriously damaged.“
Based on the maps he’s seen, Skiles showed KSAT where the wall would cut across a canyon and, possibly, right over the top of the thousands-year-old rock art.
“It’s a little scary to think how it might damage these treasures of our human culture,” Skiles said.
“We now know of about 80 sites that would be south of the proposed wall and about 13 sites that are within 500 meters north of that wall,” Boyd said.
Skiles said the concerns span the political spectrum.
“I’ve never seen such a community-wide, native response, you know, anything that unified people as much,” Skiles said. “And I’m talking Republicans, extremists, tree huggers.”
Skiles believes that the physical barriers are good deterrents in populated areas, but questions why one is needed in the barren, rugged territory of the Val Verde County and the greater Big Bend region.
“Even if you decided, ‘OK, lets put in some barriers.’ Taking the time to look at the landscape and say, ‘Well, look right over there, for a quarter-mile are sheer 100-foot cliffs,’” Skiles said. “Do we really need put a 35-foot steel wall on top of a 100-foot cliff?”
The government’s response
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), an agency within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), sent KSAT the following statement through a spokesperson:
For all border wall construction projects, CBP conducts outreach to solicit feedback from landowners and interested stakeholders to seek input on the project’s potential impacts to the environment, cultural resources, quality of life and commerce, including socioeconomic impacts. CBP’s goal is to mitigate impacts to environmental resources to the greatest extent possible while still meeting the U.S. Border Patrol’s operational requirements. While the public outreach period for the Val Verde County project closed in February 2026, the materials can be found online and include details about the project and a map of the planned alignment: https://www.cbp.gov/document/environmental-assessments/border-barrier-and-waterborne-barrier-system-val-verde-and
(Please note that CBP.gov is not being updated during the DHS shutdown)
U.S. Customs and Border Protection
Both Skiles and Boyd said they never received any correspondence detailing when the public outreach period started or ended for Val Verde County.
Negotiations are underway on the border wall portion through the Big Bend region, The eastern part of the region, which includes Val Verde County and the rock art, remains in question.
KSAT will continue to follow up on this story.