Tascosa - Dodge City Trail - Moore County, TX
Posted by: 
YoSam.
N 35° 45.658 W 101° 57.510
14S E 232517 N 3961474
Two markers in this county for this trail ~ One end of the trail (Dodge City, KS) is thriving, the other end (Tascosa, TX) has been converted into the Texas Boys Ranch, and is very healthy education facility
Waymark Code: WMMQ72
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 10/24/2014
Views: 5
County of marker: Moore County
Location of marker: US 87/287, 7.1 mile south of Dumas
Marker erected by: State Historical Survey Committee
Date marker erected: 1966
Marker text:
Route of the old
TASCOSA-DODGE CITY TRAIL
Founded 1877, for travel from Tascosa, on the Canadian (25 mi. SW) to Dodge City, Kansas. Tascosa was supply center for hunters and settlers, Panhandle and South Plains; and for LE, LIT, LS and LX Ranches, running large herds of cattle on area's free grass. Tascosa stagecoach, freighters, cattle herds going to market used this road -- also traveled by gamblers, desperadoes, U.S. Marshals and noted frontiersmen. Tascosa had post office, 1878; was county seat, Oldham County, 1880. Town and trail declined after Fort Worth & Denver City Railway built into area, 1887.
Second marker in Moore County
This marker is broken off the stand and stolen
Located: TX-152, roadside turnout, 12 miles E. of Dumas (N 35° 51.638 W 101° 45.765)
Erected by: State Historical Survey Committee
Date erected: 1966
Marker text:
Route of
TASCOSA - DODGE CITY
TRAIL
As ranchers and merchants settled in this part of Texas during the 1870s, the need for a direct supply line became evident. This trail was established in 1877 for cattle drives and freight hauls from Tascosa (38 mi. SW) to markets in Dodge City, Kansas. It also served as a stagecoach and mail route. The town of Tascosa received a post office in 1878 and was the Oldham County seat from 1880 until 1915. The coming of the railroad in 1887 led to the decline of the town and to the abandonment of the Tascosa-Dodge City Trail.
"This road was surveyed during the Civil War to haul military supplies to Ft. Bascom, N. Mex. Territory. Then came the buffalo hunters using the Trail going to Dodge City hauling hides and buying supplies. Tascosa became a town in the early 1880's. Os teams and mule teams hauled freight for the cowboy capitol of the Panhandle and ranches that ran into hundreds of dollars annually. Herds from all the Panhandle trailed into Dodge over this route for a number of years. Kit Carson and his N. Mex. Volunteers came down this Trail from Ft. Bascom in November 1865 to fight a losing battle with the Indians at the First Adobe Walls Site. Stage coaches ran weekly carrying mail and passengers over the 242 mile route. Post Offices and stage stands out of Tascosa were Little Blue, Cator's Zulu Stockade, Hardesty Ranch in "No Man's Land", Jim Lanes Beaver Creek, Hines Crossing, Cimarron, Hoodoo Brown, Crooked Creek, on into Dodge. Brick for the courthouse at nearby ghost town of Hansford was hauled from Dodge City. Later freight came over this Trail from Liberal, Kansas. Ranchers continued to use portions of the Old Trail until 1920 when the railroad built across the county and Spearman was built. Thus another old historic trail was fenced and plowed under." ~ State Historical Survey Committee, Hansford County Historical Survey Committee, Twentieth Century Club 1963