Ryan Murray was on a fishing trip on his family ranch in Burnet County, Texas, in 2013 when he came across something sticking out of the bank of Rocky Creek that appeared to be a piece of chalk, but he suspected it was a bone. He started digging around the object but soon discovered it was a large bone. With a little more digging, Murray determined there were several bones, and he was onto a whopper of a tale, and it had nothing to do with fish. This discovery would ultimately lead to a community-wide project to excavate, preserve, and tell the story of “Rockie,” a female bison believed to be approximately 700 years old.

Murray took some of the smaller bones to the University of Texas, where he met Tom Hester, an anthropologist who would help expand the story of Rockie. It was determined the bones were a bison, and carbon dating dated the remains to between 1308 and 1424, making the animal approximately 700 years old. It was also determined the bones were the remains of a mature female bison weighing from 1,300 to 1,800 lbs. It is believed she ventured down a creek bed in what now is northern Burnet County, Texas. The animal died from natural causes or because she became bogged in the mud there.

Rockie and her story became an excavation, preservation, and education project. An all-volunteer team and with funds raised by the citizens of Marble Falls and Burnet County, Texas, the effort became a community-wide project. Now a permanent exhibit at the Falls on the Colorado Museum in Marble Falls, this book tells the story of Rockie’s journey from the bed of a creek to becoming the focal point of a community.