EAGLE NEST CREEK. Eagle Nest Creek, also known as Eagle Nest Canyon, rises a mile east of Farm Road 2083 in southern Val Verde County (at 29°53' N, 101°33' W) and runs south for five miles to its mouth on the Rio Grande, a half mile east of Langtry (at 29°49' N, 101°33' W). Eagle Nest Creek sharply dissects massive limestone that underlies flat terrain, forming a deep and winding canyon. The last mile of the streambed passes through the high vertical cliffs of One Mile Canyon. The area soils are generally dark, calcareous stony clays and clay loams and support oaks, junipers, grasses, and mesquites. Eagle Nest Creek was named for a landmark noted by travelers and settlers for over two centuries. It is an inaccessible, but highly visible, limestone cavern located near the top of a 300-foot vertical bluff on the course of the creek and just east of Langtry. At one time eagles nested on the ledge outside the cavern. On April 25, 1875, Lt. John L. Bullis and his Black Seminole scouts fought border Indians at Eagle's Nest Crossing, near the landmark. Three of the scouts won Medals of Honor for saving Bullis's life in the Eagle's Nest battle. In 1882 the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railway established a grading camp near the crossing and named it Eagle's Nest.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Robert Wooster, Soldiers, Sutlers and Settlers: Garrison Life of the Texas Frontier (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1987).