When the US Army established Fort Stockton here in 1859, it was located alongside the famed Comanche Springs, an ancient oasis of fresh water in the desert, used by animals, Spanish explorers, and native Indian tribes for thousands of years.
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"Comanche Trail
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Comanche Trail, sometimes called the Comanche War Trail or the Comanche Trace, was a travel route in Texas established by the nomadic Comanche nation. The route ran from the Comanche summer hunting grounds to the Rio Grande, where the Spanish had established a line of missions and presidios during the eighteenth century in what was then called New Spain, which the Comanche would raid. Although called a "trail," the Comanche Trail was actually a network of parallel and branching trails, always following sources of good water. By 1857 parts of the trail had been named and appeared on maps.[1]
Following water sources, the primary trail ran north from two starting points on the Rio Grande River, one at Boquillas and the other at Presidio, with crossings of the river at both locations. The legs of the trail met at Comanche Springs, near Fort Stockton, Texas and Las Moras Springs near Fort Clark.[2] The trail continued north to cross the Pecos River in the vicinity of Horsehead Crossing,[3] bending northeast to the area of Odessa and Big Spring, Texas.[4][5] From there the Comanche Trail ran east past the Caprock Escarpment and on across the Llano Estacado by two separate routes. One branch ran to the vicinity of Lubbock and along the Double Mountains (Texas) fork of the Brazos River to near the present site of Abernathy, to near Littlefield,[6] then via a series of springs to the Pecos River near Fort Sumner. A separate fork ran from Big Spring, Texas to near Plainview, Texas, rejoining the other route to the east of Muleshoe.[1] Northern branches of the trail ran through the Texas Panhandle into Oklahoma, Colorado and Kansas. Southern branches extended into northern Mexico through Chihauhua, Coahuila and Durango to Zacatecas and San Luis Potosi, while an eastern fork ran from Big Spring, Texas southeast to Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas.[7]
The Comanche Trail was noted as a beaten path as much as a mile wide. Much of the southeastern leg of the main trail runs through what is now Big Bend National Park, leaving the park through Persimmon Gap in the Santiago Mountains in the northern portion of the park.
U.S. 385 follows the same route through parts of the park.[9]"
A state historic marker at the site of the springds 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)"
This spot near the springs was therefore and obvious choice to establish a US military outpost who soldiers would be tasked with protecting all of the varied roads and travelers that passed by this location.
Fort Stockton was tasked with protecting the following wagon roads and trails:
The Lower San Antonio – El Paso Road See: (
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The Chihuahua Trail See: (
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The Butterfield Overland Mail route See:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfield_Overland_Mail
The Pecos -New Mexico Trail: See (
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The Fort Clark – Fort Concho Military Road See: (
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From the Handbook of Texas: (
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"FORT STOCKTON. Fort Stockton, constructed of adobe and named for Lt. Edward Dorsey Stockton, an officer in the First Infantry who had died in San Antonio in 1857, was established by the United States Army on January 17, 1859, at Comanche Springs, which was within the site of the present city of Fort Stockton, for the protection of the mail service, travelers, and freighters.
Comanche Springs was on the Comanche war trail into Mexico, the upper and lower San Antonio-El Paso-San Diego roads, the Butterfield Overland Mail route, and the San Antonio-Chihuahua Trail, and near the Pecos River-New Mexico road. Capt. Arthur T. Lee, commanding Company C, Eighth Infantry, on order of Col. Carlos A. Waite, who commanded all federal troops in Texas, abandoned the post in April 1861. On June 26 the post was reoccupied by Capt. Charles L. Pyron, in command of Company B, Second Regiment, Texas Mounted Rifles. It was abandoned by the Confederates in August 1862, after Gen. Henry H. Sibley's defeat in New Mexico.
On July 21, 1867, Fort Stockton, in ruins after the Civil War, was reoccupied by Gen. Edward Hatch, who made it the headquarters for the Ninth United States Cavalry, a regiment of black troops. Hatch built a new post nearby at a cost of $82,000 on land the federal government neither owned nor had leased. Except for the stone guardhouse, the buildings had stone foundations, adobe walls, and dirt roofs. The troops quartered at the post were used for patrols, escorts, and scouts, largely against the Apaches.
In 1882, after the Apaches had been defeated, the army began withdrawing the troops. The last contingent, a company of the Third Cavalry and two companies of the Sixteenth Infantry, commanded by Maj. George A. Purington, left on June 26–27, 1886.
By providing protection to travelers and settlers, a market for stockmen, irrigation farmers, and merchants, and employment for freighters, mechanics, and laborers, Fort Stockton promoted the establishment and development of a thriving community. Since their abandonment by the military, some of the officers' quarters have been used continuously for residences. In 1936 the state erected a marker at the site of the fort on the grounds of the Pecos County Courthouse."