Campsite of the Marcy Expedition
Ira, Scurry County, Texas
Marker Inscription
At a grove of mesquite and wild chinaberry trees by a creek near here, Capt. R. B. Marcy's expedition camped Oct. 7, 1849, while blazing the famous Marcy Trail. They saw nothing deadlier than quail and wild turkeys in the area, but the next day, tragedy struck. Lt. Montgomery Pike Harrison (1826-1849)--grandson of President Wm. Henry Harrison and older brother of later President Benjamin Harrison--left camp alone to scout a ravine. When he did not return by dark, the company fired a Howitzer to signal him, but received no answer. Searchers the next day found signs that Harrison, always friendly to the Indians, had stopped and smoked with two Indians, believed to be Kiowas. He was disarmed, however, taken one mile south and then shot with his own rifle. The Indians scalped and stripped the body and threw it into a ravine on Canyon Creek. They were pursued, but never captured. Marcy later reported that when his men heard of Harrison's death, many hid their faces "to conceal their tears." The body was packed in charcoal and taken in a coffin made from a wagon bed to Ft. Smith for burial. Despite this tragedy, Marcy's Trail became a major wagon road, taking gold seekers to California and troops and supplies across the West Texas frontier. (1967)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In October 1849, Captain Randolph B. Marcy's expedition camped near here while blazing a wagon route across West Texas. The trip turned tragic when Lieutenant Montgomery Pike Harrison—grandson of President William Henry Harrison—rode out alone and was killed, his body hidden in a ravine on Canyon Creek. Despite the loss, the Marcy Trail became a major artery carrying gold-seekers to California and supplies across the frontier.
Why it matters
The Marcy Trail was one of the great overland roads of the westward migration, and this campsite marks both its promise and the real dangers travelers faced crossing Comanche and Kiowa country.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Randolph B. Marcy
- · Montgomery Pike Harrison
Related events
- · Marcy Expedition of 1849
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Site of Town of Cuthbert
Westbrook, TX
Teacher and merchant D.T. Bozeman founded Cuthbert in 1890 on a main wagon road northwest of Colorado City, naming it for a neighbor and installing his wife as first postmaster. A good well by his general store drew freighters, a school opened in 1893, and in 1898 the county's first rural telephone line ran from Bozeman's home to Colorado City. By 1907 the little town had two stores, a gin, church, school, and trades, but the post office closed in 1959 and Cuthbert faded away.
Dunn
Dunn, TX
Dunn began about 1881 as a change station where freighters resting their teams hauled goods north after the Texas & Pacific Railway reached Colorado City. A blacksmith shop and store sprang up to serve the wagon traffic, mail was dropped at the Dunn family home, and a post office named for them opened in 1890 with the first school built the same year. A community well, windmill, and trough once stood in the middle of the road—covered over only when the highway was paved in 1938.
The Block 97 Controversy
Snyder, TX
The Block 97 dispute grew out of Texas's practice of paying railroads in public land for the track they laid. In 1873 the Houston & Texas Central mistakenly claimed some 300,000 acres reserved for the Texas & Pacific; when the error surfaced in 1882 it voided countless deeds, and much of the land was unscrupulously resold, sparking a decade of tangled claims until the legislature declared it state school land in 1899.
City of Snyder
Snyder, TX
Snyder began in 1878 as "Hide Town," a rough camp of tents and dugouts where buffalo hunters traded on Deep Creek, taking its lasting name from trader W.H. "Pete" Snyder. The railroad's arrival in 1908 knit it into the wider economy, but it was the 1948 discovery of the vast Canyon Reef oil field that transformed the quiet county seat into an overnight boom town, tripling its population in a single year.