Cimmaron (Persimmon) Springs
Archer City, Archer County, Texas
Marker Inscription
(Four miles east off Cowan Road) The natural springs that flow near this site first appeared on early maps of the area as Cimmaron Springs. European immigrants who settled here in the early 1890s were unfamiliar with the word cimmaron and called it Persimmon Springs. The water source served early Native Americans, settlers and military parties and was a factor in settlement patterns and immigration routes. A garden spot in the midst of a dry, windy area, Cimmaron (Persimmon) Springs has been a well-known landmark since the earliest days of occupation in Archer County. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
These natural springs, a green oasis in a dry and windy stretch of Archer County, appeared on early maps as Cimmaron Springs; European settlers of the early 1890s, unfamiliar with the word, softened it to Persimmon Springs. Long before them, the water had served Native Americans, travelers, and military parties, and its reliable flow helped shape where roads ran and where people settled. It has remained a well-known landmark since the county's earliest days of occupation.
Why it matters
Reliable water sources like this one quietly dictated the routes and settlement patterns of the West, drawing Native peoples and newcomers alike to the same life-giving ground.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Camp Cureton, C.S.A.
Archer City, TX
During the Civil War the Confederacy strung a thin line of frontier posts from the Red River to the Rio Grande, and Camp Cureton anchored a stretch of it near where the Gainesville–Fort Belknap road crossed the West Fork of the Trinity. Manned by the Texas Frontier Regiment and named for veteran Indian-fighter Capt. Jack Cureton, its poorly supplied troopers patrolled against Comanche raids while guarding supply trains and watching for Union movement. Contemporaries judged them more effective at curbing raids than the U.S. Army had been.
In Vicinity of French Trading Area (4.5 Miles West)
Archer City, TX
In the mid-1700s, Native peoples of this region met French traders from Louisiana at a nearby trading ground, exchanging furs for manufactured goods — including guns and ammunition the Spanish crown forbade but could not stop. The Spanish explorer José Mares noted evidence of the French during his 1787 road-mapping expedition, and decades later, in 1854, Captain R. B. Marcy and Indian agent Robert S. Neighbors camped nearby while scouting reservation sites. The area was a meeting point of three empires and many peoples.
The Confluence of the Brazos, Trinity, and Red River Watersheds
Olney, TX
This 1,250-foot mound marks a rare watershed divide where waters part toward the Trinity, the Brazos, and the Red. Its commanding height made it a landmark across Texas history: it guided a Spanish expedition under Diego Parrilla toward battle on the Red in 1759, aided Captain R. B. Marcy's 1849 survey of a California trail, and served Marcy and Robert Neighbors as a beacon when they sought a site for an Indian reservation in 1854. It later appeared on U.S. Cavalry maps during the Indian campaigns of the 1870s.
Little Salt Creek Indian Fight
Olney, TX
On May 16, 1869, a cattle roundup crew was attacked at their work and forced into an all-day fight against some fifty-seven Comanches. The twelve cowboys—drawn from Palo Pinto, Jack, Young, and Tarrant counties—held the raiders at bay until nightfall, when the Comanches withdrew. Nine of the crew were wounded, and three of them died of their injuries.