Camp Bowie, a Texas Army National Guard (TXARNG) training area located 6 miles south-southeast of Brownwood, Texas, and comprising 8,755 acres, is presently distributed as two parcels: an original reserve comprising 5,410 acres and a newly acquired adjacent tract to the southeast comprising 3,345 acres (Figure 1). The training area is used for vehicle maintenance and improving combat readiness in the TXARNG and is mandated for company and platoon-level training of reserve and active personnel in the use of armored vehicles and .50-caliber (nonexplosive) training devices. The area is of a size sufficient to implement the Army Training and Evaluation Program (ARTEP). The overall plan includes discontinuing agricultural use and allowing the land to return to a natural, if not original, physical state (Adjutant General's Department of Texas, 1992).
Physiographically, Camp Bowie is on a transition between rolling hills developed on Cretaceous rocks of the Grand Prairie province in the east and the generally lower-relief Osage Plains developed on much older rocks (Triassic, Permian, and Pennsylvanian) to the west (Sellards and others, 1932; Figure 2). These physiographic provinces have also been called Cross Timbers and Prairies, and Rolling Plains, respectively (Gould, 1975). The area is in the Colorado River drainage basin and includes many small intermittent creeks. Water from these streams eventually drains into Pecan Bayou to the east of the camp or Indian Creek to the west. Pecan Bayou and Indian Creek drain south into the Colorado River (Figure 1).Bureau of Economic Geolog
