Giddings' Pecos Station
Iraan, Pecos County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In the mid-19th century, stagecoach lines were a primary means of moving people, mail and supplies through the region. The U.S. government contracted with Henry Skillman for the San Antonio-El Paso Stage line in 1851. In this area, the route ran along the historic Chihuahua Trail, also known as the Lower Road, which was designed to carry U.S. mail. The service soon added passenger and freight delivery. Skillman and William "Bigfoot" Wallace were two of the better known drivers. In 1854, George H. Giddings took over the San Antonio to El Paso line and created a series of stage stations in the area. In 1858, he established one near the "S" crossing of the Pecos River. It had two structures built of adobe, limestone and wood. Teamsters used the larger building as a kitchen and dining room and the smaller structure as sleeping quarters. An adobe or high pole corral with a wide gate stood behind the buildings, housing dozens of horses and mules. Water came from a nearby hand-dug well, formerly an existing spring. In early 1862, a driver of the stage to Fort Lancaster reported Indians had destroyed Pecos Station, and the site was abandoned. Lt. Col. Thomas B. Hunt led a detachment past the ruins in 1869, giving the position as the west bank of the Pecos, 2.5 miles from Camp Melbourne. The exact location of the remote post, however, remained in doubt over the years until archeological investigations in the early 21st century. Stone foundations and cultural artifacts from the 1850s, along with evidence of earlier Native American occupation, helped identify this isolated scene of frontier life. (2007)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
When mail, passengers, and freight still moved across West Texas by stagecoach, the San Antonio–El Paso line threaded the desolate Chihuahua Trail, or Lower Road. George H. Giddings took over the run in 1854 and built a string of stations; the one raised near the Pecos River's "S" crossing in 1858 offered adobe-and-limestone shelter, a corral of horses and mules, and water from a hand-dug well. Reported destroyed during Indian raids in 1862, the remote post's exact site stayed uncertain until 21st-century archeology pinpointed its foundations.
Why it matters
It marks the hard, isolated frontier infrastructure that stitched the far Southwest to the rest of the nation before the railroads, and the layered Native and Anglo history buried at a single river crossing.
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Related people
- · George H. Giddings
- · Henry Skillman
- · William "Bigfoot" Wallace
Related events
- · San Antonio-El Paso Stage line
Themes & tags
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