Billions of dollars in border wall contracts awarded this year are pushing heavy construction onto private ranchland in West Texas, where bulldozers and barrier foundations now threaten archaeological sites that hold 6,000 years of human history, according to WIRED. The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) awarded the contracts for a wall and other barriers along a remote 500-plus-mile (800-plus-kilometer) riverfront expanse of the US-Mexico border, WIRED reported.
After bipartisan backlash forced DHS to scrap a 30-foot steel bollard wall inside Big Bend National Park, the agency replaced it with miles of riverside vehicle barriers and more than 200 miles of road construction, according to WIRED. Bulldozers began clearing along the Rio Grande corridor near Santa Elena Canyon on August 6, and construction in the park has since paused in response to lawsuits. Outside the park, however, the agency is still planning to build the wall and a network of roads across mountains and canyons, including across private property where ranchers say unstudied sites are at risk.
Construction Components and Timeline
WIRED reported that the border infrastructure plan now consists of several distinct elements, with different statuses.
| Component | Status per WIRED |
|---|---|
| 30-foot steel bollard wall (Big Bend National Park) | Scuttled after bipartisan backlash |
| Riverside vehicle barriers | Miles planned as replacement |
| Road construction | More than 200 miles planned |
| Clearing near Santa Elena Canyon | Bulldozers began August 6 |
| Wall construction in park | Paused after lawsuits |
| Wall and road construction outside park | Still planned |
Ancient Sites Directly in the Wall's Path
Archaeologist Bryon Schroeder, who runs Sul Ross University's Center for Big Bend Studies, has spent two years digging at a site called Canta Recio on rancher Jeff Fort's property, according to WIRED. His team removes 4 inches (10 centimeters) of sediment at a time and has found pottery and melted adobe slick building material dating to as early as AD 800, alongside turquoise and marine shells that point to trade beyond the region. WIRED reported that the evidence links Canta Recio to Paquimé, a UNESCO World Heritage site 200 miles away in Mexico.
Canta Recio sits directly in the proposed wall's path. Part of the site is set to be bulldozed, and other sections would become effectively inaccessible if the wall is built, according to WIRED. Schroeder compared the settlement to ancient Egyptian communities along the Nile, saying the site was settled four or five times between 800 and 1400 by groups drawn to fertile floodplain soil, then forced out when the Rio Grande overtopped its banks and resettled once the silt firmed up.
"There's some bigger, cooler sites up the river that are just insane," Schroeder said. "They have so much pottery, they have Mesoamerican copper bells, they have turquoise. They have all sorts of crazy stuff."
The WIRED report also names Eagle Nest Canyon in Langtry, Texas, in the same passage. It places the Polvo site in Redford, Texas, directly in line with a 30-foot bollard wall, where a prehistoric village with a burial ground dating to the 1300s and a Spanish mission built in the 1600s occupy the same ground.
| Site | Location | Key evidence per WIRED |
|---|---|---|
| Canta Recio | Jeff Fort's property, West Texas | Pottery, adobe (from AD 800), turquoise, marine shells; linked to Paquimé |
| Polvo site | Redford, Texas | Prehistoric village, burial ground (1300s), Spanish mission (1600s) |
| Eagle Nest Canyon | Langtry, Texas | Referenced in WIRED's report |
The Study Gap and the Agency's Review
The central problem, according to WIRED, is that archaeologists cannot fully measure what is at risk because many sites exist on private ranches and have never been studied. Construction could therefore erase history before anyone records it. A CBP spokesperson told WIRED that the agency is conducting environmental and cultural reviews to minimize impacts and balance operational needs with responsible land stewardship, but WIRED noted that previous studies have not stopped historically important sites from being sentenced to destruction.
For operators working in the border region, the practical picture is one of a construction program that is paused in the national park but still actively planned on private land. The park pause is tied to lawsuits, and the agency's stated review process is the only schedule signal available, according to WIRED. Any further legal action or review findings would affect how and when the remaining barrier and road segments outside the park advance.
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