Los Minnows Otra Vez

Skip Warren - UNT History Major

Thirty degrees colder this week with light southerly wind and solid gray overcast. The fish seem even more camouflaged than before. My looming presence makes them dart to the fringe of the pond to hide under dead leaves. Once they get used to “it” they cautiously come back out to swim their small area. Minnows feed mostly on dead insects, predominantly mosquitos, and algae. While the insects are at a minimum due to winter, the algae is plentiful. In fact at closer inspection the entire man-made waterfall is covered with it as well as the pond fringes. The minnows slowly swim in a very small area conserving energy. Occasionally one or two will venture out from behind their rock island and brave the rapids and turbulence that the waterfall produces. At this point a lone individual will hover there against the flow. Yet another applies a burst of energy against the current but gives up in a half-hearted attempt to explore the opposite end of the pond. 

Sketch rendering of the minnow pond by Skip Warren.

I step back to let the fish settle down and take the opportunity to walk to the other end of the pond. It is comma shaped with “my” minnows at the fat end. The waterfall is midpoint where it disturbs the water at the comma’s narrowest point. At the extreme end of the pond is the narrowest and shallowest part of the water. It’s calm there as well and contains its own minnow community. I have yet to see a minnow swimming in the area between the two groups. Too turbulent I would imagine. Yet some brave minnow in the past has managed to do it. Do the two groups ever communicate, trade information or technology? Would an intrepid minnow be allowed to stay or could they even get back? Would a permanent visit upset the minnow’s social hierarchy? Is one group more advanced or better organized than the other? Could there be a minny minnow war over territory? For some reason I thought of the relationship between the Shoshone of the Great Basin and the Plateau tribes (Yakima, Umatilla, Colville) even though rough terrain separated them. While much maligned, the Shoshone are after all credited with introducing the horse to the Plateau tribes. Oh well, back to the minnows. I’ll watch the waterfall area more closely to see if there is a trade route I’ve missed. The minnows could prove to be an interesting culture.

As stated before the entire man-made waterfall is part of a larger environment built to reflect native Texas wildlife, including plants, plus geology. The geologic section is a short trail through time from the Archean Era through the Cenozoic Era represented by various large rocks of the appropriate age, all labeled. Letting the minnows rest from my presence I walked through the display thinking it was exactly what Walter Taylor criticized A. V. Kidder for during Southwest research. That of descriptive archaeology without culture. Everything placed in chronologic order, labeled and completely out of context.