A state historic marker in a roadside pull-out preserves the memory of an ancient watering place on a trail used by Native Americans, animals, Spanish explorers, wagon-train drivers, US Cavalry on border patrol duty and others from prehistoric times to the modern day.
The marker is located in a roadside pullout about 35 miles south of Marathon along the US 385, and reads as follows:
"DOUBLE MILLS
A natural watering place in prehistoric times, as evidenced by artifacts found here. Used later by Indians and Spaniards on roads from northern Mexico.
As Maravillas Creek developed from a draw into water channel, old water hole vanished. About 1900 an early rancher, George Miller, dug two wells and put up twin windmills. After that, site was called Double Mills.
Became campsite for ranchers driving cattle and horses from Mexico or the Chisos Mountains to railroad at Marathon. Also for wagon trains of ore; and for U.S. troops on border duty. (1967)"
The Comanche trail followed the route of US 385 (former State highway 227) from Marathon to Persimmon Gap, now part of the Big Bend National Park. Inside the Persimmon Gap Visitor Center there are several signs and exhibits about the Comanche Trail through Brewster County.
From the National Park Service: (
visit link)
"The Comanche Trail
Stylized map of the Comanche Trail After the beautiful brilliance of spring flowers, summer's blistering heat and the sporadic but fierce late-summer thunderstorms, the desert was primed for the greatest challenge it had yet to undergo. The full moon of September rose ominously over the Deadhorse Mountains and heralded the arrival of the Comanche Indians. During the time of the "Comanche Moon," this nation of nomads pulled up settlements and departed the buffalo-hunting grounds on the Great Plains in what is now Kansas, Oklahoma, and the Texas Panhandle. They had practiced their equestrian skills during extended hunts and sharpened their reflexes in preparation for this exhaustive journey and the lifestyle they would adopt along the way. Their route forked a leaving Horsehead Crossing on the Pecos River and forged its way southward. By the time they entered Persimmon Gap, the trail had already acquired lasting characteristics from decades of use during migrations such as this one.
The Comanches at this point had entered the territories of other tribes: the Chisos and Apaches, who had already mastered survival in this harsh Chihuahuan Desert. It was time once again for the annual conflict to begin anew. The Chisos Indians, a hunting-gathering-farming band, were no match to the extremely mobile Comanche warriors astride their mounts.
The Apaches, on the other hand, had a firm grip on existence on this particular patch of earth and knew its secrets intimately. They would harass the small bands of Comanche raiders and ambush the larger parties at springs and tinajas. But eventually, even the Apaches dropped back into their hiding places and let the invaders pass.
The Comanches proceeded to their weakest opponents of all-the Spanish and their line of fortifications, or presidios, along el Rio Bravo del Norte (the Brave River of the North). The small Frontier villages that had been established by Spain in the 1700s were ripe for "harvest" by the Comanches. It was easy for them to avoid the widely-spaced presidios and small garrisons of Spanish soldiers to raid any settlement meeting their needs. Livestock and prisoners were herded back across the river northward along the Great Comanche Trail through Persimmon Gap again. The "booty" that did not survive the forced march left their bleached bones as stark monuments to others passing through the area. Coupled with the practice of setting fires behind them to drive off any pursuit that might follow, the Comanches produced a major thoroughfare a mile wide in some places and 'so well beaten that it appeared that suitable engineers had constructed it." Few explorers failed to mention this scar upon seeing it cut across the heart of the Big Bend.
Today as you travel in your modern-day "covered wagon" down U.S. 385 from Marathon through Persimmon Gap, the great trail is practically invisible, even to the trained eye. A small stone and steel plaque at the Persimmon Gap Visitor Center mentions its existence, yet cannot convey what some historians have called the most sustained onslaught by one civilization upon another."
Two interpretive signs at the Persimmon Gap Visitor Center read as follows:
"THE GREAT COMANCHE WAR TRAIL
On historical maps, the Comanche Trail resembles a short section of rope that is frayed at both ends. Instead of being a single trail, as one would think, it is a complex system of branching trails.
The trail is still visible near Fort Stockton where the single track is deeply entrenched. As it reaches what is now the Park, however, the trail is much broader in erosion and vegetation have reclaimed virtually all traces of it. The main branch enters the park here at Persimmon Gap, a natural passageway for humans and animals.
One Comanche band, called the Yapaituka, the ‘rooster eaters’ band, favored a route through Big Bend. They undertook this journey only after summer rains had greened the grass and filled waterholes.
[drawing]
Comanche Encampment
Drawing by George Caitlin, ca 1836"
and
"RAIDING AND TRADING
The light of the September full moon, the Comanche Moon, reveals fear on the faces of defenseless farmers and their families in northern Mexico who dread the approach of Comanche raiders.
Today as you pass through Persimmon Gap you follow in the footsteps of these raiding parties on the “Great Comanche War Trail.”
For the warriors, the moon reveals the excitement of men and boys hoping to seek glory and prove their bravery. Accompanied by women and children, some war parties numbered up to 500 people. Livestock, ammunition, and slaves captured during raids were traded with Comanche neighbors. Successful raiding and trading establish that power and wealth of the Comanche Nation, securing control of their territory.
The arrival of the Comanche on the southern plains was first noted by Spanish authorities in New Mexico in 1706. By the mid-1700s, they displaced the Apache and other tribes in their lands, establishing “Comancheria” on the best Buffalo hunting grounds.
The Horse
One of the first tribes to adopt the horse, the Comanche learn to exploit this new technology. Horses allowed the Comanches to establish much larger hunting ranges, defend their territory with cavalry tactics, and to dominate long distance trade networks. By the late 1770s, the Comanche expanded hundreds of miles south of the Rio Grande."
IN 1940, the WPA writers came down this historic route this time in automobiles along State Highway 227 (which would ne renamed US 385 in 1959 see: (
visit link) that would become US 385. They wrote of their travels in "Texas: A Guide to the Lone Star State" as follows:
[page 621]
MARATHON, m. (4,039 alt., 750 pop.) (see Tour 23d), is at the junction with US 90 (see Tour 23). This area is geologically called the Marathon Basin one of the oldest sedimentary formations on the North American Continent.
South of Marathon State 227 follows the general route traversed by Spaniards in their exploration of the most forbidding part of New Spain. Earliest expeditions were made into the Big Bend in 1583. Many others, during the years that followed, ended in tragedy when starvation and thirst took their toll. Penetration into this region was slow; as one writer said, "The tide of Spanish exploration split upon the rock formed by the Big Bend country, and ebbed and flowed along' either side." Besides barren deserts and formidable wastes, a living reason for this existed: the fierce mountain Indians, who were as savage as the land they had taken from earlier cave dwellers. Hence every mile that is covered now by automobiles once was gained only by daring and ingenuity.
. . .
[page 625] PERSIMMON GAP, 41.5 m. (2,971 alt.), is a pass in the Santiago Range. The Sierra Del Caballo Muerto (5,647 alt.), (L), is locally called by its English translation, the Dead Horse Mountains. In this range are the real badlands of the Big Bend, where water is almost unobtainable except in tinajas (natural rock depressions which catch rain water).
Through this gap came the Comanche Trail, blazed by raiding Indians from the South Plains on their way to Mexico. It extended south from Horsehead Crossing on the Pecos River, past Comanche Springs (Fort Stockton), to the Comanche Crossing of the Rio Grande."