Pecos County Historic Marker - Fort Stockton, TX - Old Spanish Trail Auto Route on Waymarking.com

The OST Loop Route into Fort Stockton came in from the east along E Dickinson Boulevard, dipped southwest via N Alamo Street to N Spring Street to downtown Fort Stockton, then turned back towards the northwest on Callaghan Street to Railroad Avenue before heading north to rejoin W Dickinson Blvd and head west out of town.

These early Auto Routes were less about traveling in a straight line from point A to point B, and more about local economic development and tourism. For this reason, all of these early travel routes would pass through the center of the city before returning to the road out of town.

By 1926, when the US Federal Highway System converted the old names Auto Tour Routes into a numbered system of US Highways, the OST was well established. At this time, parts of the OST in Texas were co-designated US 90, US 90Alt, US 87, US 80 and US 290.

The OST in Fort Stockton was part of the US 290 alignment that terminated northwest of Balmorhea at US 80 (The Bankhead Highway).

As a commemoration of the Centennial of Texas statehood, the Texas State Highway department commissioned pink granite blocks with bronze plates on top and bronze medallions on the front. 254 of these markers were designated county markers, and contained short facts about the organization dates, namesakes, and sometimes important events that took place in each county. One of these category of markers was placed in each Texas county, either at the county line, at the county courthouse, or in the newly-conceived roadside parks (we know them today as rest areas).

The Pecos County marker was placed in 1936 east of Fort Stockton along old US 290/Old Spanish Trail in Pecos County. Every traveler along the OST who passed by here would have seen this distinctive block of pink granite with the Centennial bronze logo in the center.

In 1936 they were brand-new and part of an important commemoration of Texas history. In 2016 it's still a lot of fun to seek these Centennial markers out.

Many of the pink granite blocks had their bronze plates replaced in the 1960s/1970s with more accurate or complete information, or to remove disparaging adjectives about Native tribes that were accepted in the 1930s but were recognized by he 1960s as being negative and hurtful.

It is a lot of fun to see a rare 1936 Centennial marker with its original bronze plate intact. All of these true relics of the Centennial marker program did not need any revisions to text to reflect changing attitudes.

The Centennial marker at for Pecos County is one of the rare original markers that did not need its bronze plate replaced. The text on this marker is the same as it has ever been, since the day it was placed. It did need a replacement of the bronze face plate with the state seal.

The marker reads as follows:

"Formed from Presidio County, created May 3, 1871.

Organized March 9, 1875.

On March 9, 1875, the following county officers were elected: George M. Frazer, Chief Justice. Cesario Torre, Commissioner. Francis Rooney, Commissioner. Hipolito Carrasco, Commissioner.
Fort Stockton, County Seat.

Oil was discovered in the Yates field in 1926."

Submission Criteria: Distinctive or Significant Interest Address of Waymark: I-10 Business Loop/old US 290/E Dickinson Blvd Fort Stockton, TX Website with More Information: Not listed

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Date Logged Log   12/21/2016 Benchmark Blasterz visited it