Fort McKavett - Fort Clark Military Road
Roosevelt, Kimble County, Texas
Marker Inscription
FROM NEARBY FT. TERRETT, THIS ROAD IN 1852 LED SOUTH TO FT. CLARK AND NORTH TO FT. McKAVETT. SELECTED MAINLY BECAUSE IT HAD WATER AVAILABLE, IT SERVED AS ROUTE FOR FREIGHT AND MAIL, 1868, WHEN FORTS WERE REACTIVATED. OVER IT WENT TROOPS, SUPPLIES, A FEW IMMIGRANTS AND PIONEER RANCHES. IT WAS NOTED ALSO FOR PASSAGE OF FORAYS OF COL. RANALD MACKENZIE AGAINST THE HOSTILE INDIANS TO THE NORTHWEST. AFTER FORTS WERE ABANDONED IN 1883, RANCHERS DROVE CATTLE TO MARKET OVER PARTS OF THE ROAD. (1966)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Laid out in 1852 and reopened when the frontier forts were reactivated after the Civil War, this road ran north and south between Forts Terrett, Clark, and McKavett, its route chosen chiefly for the water along the way. It carried mail, freight, troops, and a trickle of settlers, and served as a line of march for Colonel Ranald Mackenzie's campaigns against Native peoples to the northwest. After the forts closed in 1883, ranchers used stretches of it to drive cattle to market.
Why it matters
Roads like this were the arteries of frontier Texas, turning a chain of remote military posts into a functioning region and paving the way for the ranching economy that followed the soldiers.
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Related people
- · Ranald Mackenzie
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Stopping Place on the Fort Clark-Fort McKavett Military Road
Rocksprings, TX
This route was one of many military roads built to link the frontier cavalry posts of Texas, running south to Fort Clark and north to Fort McKavett, both established in 1852. Paint Rock Springs, at the head of the South Llano River, made a natural midway rest stop, and in 1877 Major John B. Jones gathered his Texas Rangers here to launch a campaign against frontier outlaws. Beyond its military purpose, the road carried immigrants, cattle drovers, ranchers, mail riders, and freighters into the open country.
Mackenzie Trail
Rocksprings, TX
When the U.S. Army built Forts Clark and McKavett in 1852, this rough frontier trail linked the two posts; after Fort Concho was founded in 1867 it was extended north toward present San Angelo. It later took the name of Col. Ranald S. Mackenzie, the 1873 commander of Fort Clark, who rode it during his campaigns against Native peoples of the region. Along the way, Mackenzie Lake watered soldiers, cattle drives, settlers, and Texas Rangers patrolling the frontier.
Site of Fort Terrett
Sonora, TX
Fort Terrett was established by the U.S. Army in February 1852 to shield frontier settlers, and it carried the name of Lieutenant John C. Terrett, killed at Monterrey in 1846. Posts like it formed a thin line of defense across the Texas frontier before being abandoned as settlement pushed westward, and Terrett was left behind after barely two years, in 1854. Its brief life mirrors the restless army calculus of a fast-changing frontier.
Campsite of Marques De Rubi, 1767
Junction, TX
In 1764 King Charles III of Spain ordered the Marqués de Rubí, a field marshal, to inspect every presidio across New Spain's vast northern frontier. Accompanied by engineer and mapmaker Nicolás de Lafora, Rubí toured the borderlands and camped at this spot on July 23, 1767. His resulting report recommended closing most of Texas's small missions — carried out in 1772, leaving only San Antonio and Goliad — a sweeping reorganization of Spain's presence on the frontier.