Habitats of the Llano Estacado
Sanddunes
Photoessay: Signs of Modern Man in the Sanddunes
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A number of roads crisscross the sanddunes. In the oilfield, many of the roads are gravel, but the county and state roads are paved. On the less well-traveled roads, such signs need to be taken seriously by motorists.
One of the main reasons for people to visit the dunes in the 21st century is to service the oil wells of the region. A number of pumping stations and other processing plants can be found in the dunes.
These five pipelines were less than a mile from the facility in the last picture. The reddish color to the dunes indicates that the dunes are older than the white dunes. The red color comes from oxidized organic material in the sand.
Most of the sanddunes are on private property. The oil companies and landowners would prefer not have trespassers – H2SO4 (Sulfur dioxide) is a poisonous gas found in oilfields, and many of the pipelines are often exposed when the sand blows away. It can be dangerous! The pumpjack pumps the oil out of the ground.
Even though this pumpjack and the workover rig in the background loom over this scene, a person can still feel as if they are in the wilderness in the dunes.
The tank battery utilizes less than an acre of ground and it is the only thing in sight.
People ignore the warning signs. On the top of the dune beyond the pipeline, an ATV and its rider zipped out of sight when the photographer drove up.
Most of the riders of ATVs like to go down the same path through the dunes. After a few dozen times the machines break down the plants and leave trails. Shinoak recovers from the damage within a year, but other plants do not.
In this scene of several hundred acres of dunes, can you spot the track of the 4-wheelers? There are two tracks visible.
Sometimes it is futile for a landowner to put up a fence. Sooner or later, the sand blows away. Notice the bottom of the metal fence post pointing down like an arrow. The fence was patched with new strands below the original strands.