Emigrant Trail
Odessa, Ector County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Road of stubborn seekers of 1849 California gold fields and better life. Bringing the old, infant, the yet unborn and all worldly goods, family wagons entered Texas at Preston, on Red River, to go southwest via springs (including some now in Monahans Sandhills Park) to Emigrants' Crossing on the Pecos, then upriver and west through Guadalupe Pass to El Paso. Old wagon parts by the trail tell of some disasters. Capt. R. B. Marcy in 1849 and Capt. John Pope in 1854 made Army surveys of the trail. It passed near this spot.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
When gold fever swept the nation in 1849, wagon trains of families crossed into Texas at Preston on the Red River and pushed southwest toward the California fields, carrying the old, the young, and all they owned. Their route ran past desert springs to Emigrants' Crossing on the Pecos and on through Guadalupe Pass to El Paso, a punishing passage marked by the broken wagon parts left behind. Army officers Randolph B. Marcy in 1849 and John Pope in 1854 surveyed the trail, which passed near this spot.
Why it matters
The Emigrant Trail traces the human tide of the California Gold Rush and the westward migration that knit the young nation to the Pacific.
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Related people
- · Randolph B. Marcy
- · John Pope
Related events
- · California Gold Rush (1849)
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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Odessa Land & Townsite Company
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Captain Randolph B. Marcy's Southern Route Expedition
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As the 1849 Gold Rush drew thousands westward, the U.S. Army sent Captain Randolph B. Marcy to escort the 'Forty-Niners' toward Santa Fe, opening a wagon road from Fort Smith with the help of the Delaware scout Black Beaver and engineer James H. Simpson. After delivering his party, Marcy set out to survey a return route from West Texas, guided by a noted Comanche named Manuel across the Pecos, the Monahans sandhills, and an old Comanche trail near present-day Odessa. The resulting Fort Smith–Santa Fe road gave emigrants a shorter southern path across the continent.