Dellwood Park
Mt. Pleasant, Titus County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Before 1830, Caddo Indians had campgrounds here around mineral springs flowing red, white, and blue waters. First home at future Mount Pleasant was built here in 1830s by Benjamin Gooch. A health-recreational resort by 1895, springs area was site (1909-16) of the lavish Dellwood Hotel, built by the Red Mineral Springs Development Co., headed by Dr. T. M. Fleming. These steps are from Dellwood Hotel, which burned. Favorite spot for Confederate conventions, political rallies, and other meetings, the site was acquired 1951 by city of Mount Pleasant, as Dellwood Park.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Long before Mount Pleasant existed, Caddo Indians camped around the mineral springs here, where waters were said to flow red, white, and blue. Benjamin Gooch built the area's first home in the 1830s, and by 1895 the springs had become a health and recreation resort, crowned from 1909 to 1916 by the lavish Dellwood Hotel. A favorite spot for Confederate reunions and political rallies, the site later burned and was acquired by the city in 1951 as Dellwood Park.
Why it matters
The site layers Caddo Indian land use, frontier settlement, and the Gilded Age craze for mineral-springs resorts into a single East Texas landscape.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Benjamin Gooch
- · T. M. Fleming
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Cherokee Trace
Leesburg, TX
The Cherokee Trace was an Indian trading route laid out by Cherokees leading north toward Arkansas and Oklahoma. According to tradition, a tribesman with an unerring sense of direction dragged buffalo hides behind his horse to flatten the tall grass, while others followed to clear logs and brush, mark river fords, and locate springs and campsites; the roses and honeysuckle the Cherokees planted are said to still trace its path. After Native peoples were forced out, Anglo settlers used the same road to enter Texas, and Camp County's first residents lived along it.
Caddo Trace
Daingerfield, TX
The Caddo Trace was an ancient hunting and trade path worn by the Caddo people who lived in the northeast corner of what became Texas. Like many Indigenous routes, it was later taken over by newcomers, becoming part of stage and mail lines after 1840 and a road for teamsters and marching soldiers. It touched or crossed the Cherokee, Choctaw, and Trammel's traces, and modern state highways still trace its course.
Jefferson-Quitman Road
Gilmer, TX
One of three pioneer roads crossing Upshur County, the Jefferson–Quitman Road carried freighters and westbound settlers, along with cotton, hides, and produce bound for the busy inland port at Jefferson. Here it crossed the Cherokee Trace, the older path the Cherokee used traveling between reservation lands in Arkansas and their grounds near Nacogdoches. Nearby, the Mt. Gilead Primitive Baptist Church was organized in 1848 on land given by merchant Leonidas Cartwright.
Tarver's Ferry
Gilmer, TX
At a strategic crossing of Big Cypress Creek, this pioneer ferry carried settlers pressing west into the Texas interior, many arriving through the busy river port of Jefferson and stopping for provisions at nearby Coffeeville. James L. Tarver, who lived on the Coffeeville Road, likely worked the ferry in the 1860s. Long before wagons and oxen came this way, the Caddo people forded the stream at the very same spot, until a bridge built by 1867 finally rendered the ferry obsolete.