The Trump administration announced plans earlier this year for border projects in the Big Bend. The plans include a riverside patrol road, trenches for utility cables and towers with surveillance technology, which the administration calls the "smart wall." Conservation and cultural groups filed lawsuits, and a U.S. district judge halted border construction in the area. The U.S. Supreme Court is considering whether to allow the construction to proceed.
Tom Alex, who retired in 2014 after three decades as Big Bend National Park archeologist, said he has identified more than 100 sites that could be threatened. He said a planned road near Mariscal Mountain would cut through the center of a site with about 45 stone-circle dwellings. Near Sierra Chino Campground, he recorded a site with a cemetery, corrals and buildings that he said would probably be partly leveled.
Alex said bulldozing in August near Santa Elena Canyon damaged the Sublett Farm site, an early 20th century homestead. He paused his research last month after the judge's order and plans to resume. He will also take part in excavations this fall at the Polvo Site near Redford.