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 Stagecoach to the Rio Grande, C.S.A.
N 26° 14.857 W 097° 35.841
14R E 640086 N 2903864
Story of stagecoach travel during the Confederacy
Waymark Code: WM1FKA
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 04/28/2007
Views: 44
County: Cameron
Year Marker Erected: 1965
Designations: na
Marker Location: Intersection of FM 508 and FM 1420 - closest point to Paso Real Crossing CF Arroyo Colorado. About 1 mile north of Rio Hondo.
Marker Size: 27" x 42" Subject
Marker Number: 5094
Marker Text:
About 10 miles east of this site during the Civil War was Paso Real, ferry point on Arroyo Colorado. As early as 1846, stagecoaches had gone over Paso Real Ferry (the name probably meant "The King's Pass"). In the 1860's, the spot had international importance. It was a crossing for the cotton road, lifeline of the Confederacy. When Federal coastal blockades had cut off imports and exports for the entire South, this road moved cotton down to Matamoros so that it coud be exchanged for guns, ammunition, medicines, cloth, shoes, blankets and many other vital goods. Besides the prized cotton loads that went past Paso Real, the stagecoach connection there was of importance to Confederate and foreign businessmen, government agents, diplomats and Army personnel. This was an area of conflict and intrigue. Bandits and Army deserters watched the road for stages and cotton wagons to pilfer. Mysterious travelers went this way--sometimes with a pursuing Sheriff on the next stage. Of 31 stagelines in Confederate Texas (hauling mail, soldiers, civilians), no other was more vital nor more interesting to travel than this through Paso Real.
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