Until recently, few people knew that Texas is home to one of the largest and most diverse bodies of rock art in the New World.

For decades, numerous pioneering individuals devoted considerable time and energy to the documentation and preservation of the prehistoric rock art.  In 1931, the Witte Museum’s Assistant Director, “Miss Emma” Gutzeit, led expeditions and teams to pictograph sites in the Lower Pecos, while artist Virginia Carson made the first effort to document Lower Pecos rock art through beautifully vivid watercolor paintings. Working closely with local landowners and ranchers, such as Guy Skiles, Gutzeit, together with talented archaeologists such as A.T. Jackson, James Pearce, E.B. Sayles, George C. Martin and others, made groundbreaking discoveries. Dr. and Mrs. D.J. Sibley, with their friend and local rancher, Rose Mary Jones, later convinced the state to purchase Seminole Canyon State Park and Historic Site as a refuge for examples a broad range of the prehistoric pictograph styles. Solveig Turpin and her colleagues searched for and documented previously unknown sites. Jim Zintgraff photographed many sites.  Faced with the realization that the art was deteriorating at a rapid pace, an extraordinary group of individuals decided to coordinate their efforts by forming a foundation that could enlist the talents of a wider segment of the public.  The Rock Art Foundation (RAF) was established in 1991 and attained 501(c)(3) not-for-profit status in 1992.

In January 2017, the Rock Art Foundation officially transferred its assets, property, administration and activities to the Witte Museum. This momentous gift includes ownership and protection of one of the most significant archaeological sites in North America, the White Shaman Preserve, located on the Pecos River, near the Seminole Canyon State Historical Park. This astounding site was purchased by Rock Art Foundation board members Gale and Connie Galloway and generously donated to the Foundation. For decades, the Rock Art Foundation has led the way in stewardship, access and passion about the people and history of the Lower Pecos Canyonlands. The Rock Art Foundation includes more than 900 members, who are now Witte Museum Members. 

The Witte Museum’s long history of study and excavation in the Lower Pecos region of Texas dates to the 1930s; currently, it houses more than 20,000 artifacts from these ancient sites. With the opening of the New Witte in March 2017, visitors  have unparalleled opportunities to be transformed through immersive experiences of prehistoric life in the Kittie West Nelson Ferguson People of the Pecos Gallery and also on-site at White Shaman Preserve and other sites in the Lower Pecos Canyonlands.

White Shaman Preserve Tours are $20 per person; $15 per person for Witte Museum members. 

Join the Witte Museum Rock Art Foundation for a tour of one of the most remarkable and well-photographed rock art sites in the Lower Pecos. The White Shaman panel’s meaning and the techniques used to create it have been the subject of intense scholarly research and many publications. It is one of the most spectacular surviving examples, for example, of the use of rare white paint.
More information on this fascinating, truly one-of-a-kind archeological site can be found in the ground-breaking book, Painters in Prehistory: Archeology and Art of the Lower Pecos Canyonlands, by Witte Museum Curator of Archeology Dr. Harry Shafer (Trinity University Press, 2013) and The White Shaman Mural by Dr. Carolyn Boyd (University of Texas Press, 2016). These books are both available for purchase at the Witte Museum.