|
 San Antonio-El Paso Road -- Comanche Springs, Fort Stockton TX
N 30° 53.109 W 102° 52.534
13R E 703076 N 3418806
An official state historic marker at Rooney Park and Fort Stockton preserves the history of the Comanche Springs, now dry, but which, when they flowed, were an important stop on the Lower San Antonio-El Paso Road
Waymark Code: WMTWA2
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 01/13/2017
Views: 2
This state historic marker stands near the site of 1 of the 6 major springs that together constituted the Comanche Springs site.
A well-known source of water in the West Texas desert for millennia, Comanche Springs are used by nomadic Indians animals, Spanish explorers, soldiers, mail stagecoach lines, and pioneers headed west along the Lower San Antonio-El Paso Road.
The marker reads as follows:
"SITE OF COMANCHE SPRINGS
(One spring located here; others within 300 yards on a line runnung NE to SW)
Used as a watering place and camping ground by Indians since Pre-Columbian times, the Springs were possibly visited about 1536 by Spaniard Cabeza de Vaca on his wanderings through Texas. The expedition of Juan de Mendoza, with his party of Spaniards and Jumano Indians, camped near the waters in 1684.
The six major gushing springs and the beautiful river they formed resulted from water seeping up through geological faults to the earth's surface. The reservoir which supplied them was located in the formation known as "Trinity Sand."
The springs, among the largest in all Texas, were one of the few good watering places in this arid region. They supplied Indians raiding into Mexico on the nearby Comanche war trail and also gold seekers traveling to California on the southern route, 1849 and later. Butterfield Overland Mail stage stopped here as well, and after 1859 the Springs provided water for Fort Stockton, which was founded both to protect the mail and stop the Comanche raids.
The Springs began to be tapped for irrigation as early as 1875, but today irrigation projects to the north and west have reduced the underground water supply so much that the springs no longer flow. (1968)"
Road of Trail Name: Lower San Antonio-El Paso Road
State: Texas
County: Pecos
Historical Significance:
This route moved settlers West into sparsely populated western Texas, and was also used as a primary route to the California gold fields after 1849, by the Butterfield Overland stage, and the United States Army to movement and material between posts located along the road
Years in use: 1840s-1870s
How you discovered it:
from reading historic markers and visiting historic sites along the route
Book on Wagon Road or Trial:
Fort Clark and Brackettville: Land of Heroes (TX) (Images of America) Paperback – September 10, 2002
by Bill Haenn
We found many books that mentioned this road, but none on specifically the road itself. The san-Antonio-El Paso Road is discussed in many books in the larger context of the history of the forts it served, or the pioneers who rode on it, or the stage/mail lines that operated over it.
Website Explination:
https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/qbf46
Why?:
Emigrants and pioneers used this road to go west to new lives or to travel to California, where gold had been discovered. The U.S. Army (and from 1862-2865 the Confederate Army) used this road to travel between several frontier era forts, moving men and matériel as needed. Parts of this old road have now been turned into modern highways, and so are still in use today
Directions:
Rooney Park is located at the intersection of Spring Street and S Roonet Drive near downtown Fort Stockton
|
Visit Instructions:
To post a log for this Waymark the poster must have a picture of either themselves, GPSr, or mascot. People in the picture with information about the waymark are preferred. If the waymarker can not be in the picture a picture of their GPSr or mascot will qualify. There are no exceptions to this rule.
|