Horse Head Crossing on the Pecos River
Girvin, Pecos County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Here crossed the undated Comanche Trail from Llano Estacado to Mexico. In 1850 John R. Bartlett while surveying the Mexican boundary found the crossing marked by skulls of horses; hence the name "Horse Head". The Southern Overland Mail (Butterfield) route, St. Louis to San Francisco, 1858-1861, and the road west from Fort Concho crossed here. The Goodnight-Loving trail, established in 1866 and trod by tens of thousands of Texas longhorns, came here and turned up the east bank of the Pecos for Fort Summer and into Colorado Erected by the State of Texas 1936
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This ford on the Pecos was one of the great crossroads of the West, where the ancient Comanche Trail from the Llano Estacado to Mexico met the routes of American expansion. Surveyor John R. Bartlett found it in 1850 marked by horse skulls, giving it its name. The Butterfield Overland Mail, the road west from Fort Concho, and the Goodnight-Loving cattle trail all funneled through this single crossing.
Why it matters
Horse Head Crossing is a place where Native trails, transcontinental mail, and epic cattle drives converged, concentrating the whole traffic of the frontier at one bend of a river.
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Related people
- · John R. Bartlett
- · Charles Goodnight
- · Oliver Loving
Related events
- · Butterfield Overland Mail
- · Goodnight-Loving Trail
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Horsehead Crossing
Girvin, TX
Horsehead Crossing was the great ford of the Pecos River, named for the horse and mule skulls that littered its banks—animals driven up the Comanche War Trail that drank themselves to death after the long dry haul. After the 1849 gold rush it became a vital landmark, offering the first water in some 75 miles, and by 1858 it anchored a stage stand on the Butterfield Overland Mail. Confederate and Union eyes watched it during the Civil War, and in 1866 Goodnight and Loving blazed their famous cattle trail to this very point.
Castle Gap
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Castle Gap, a natural notch in the Castle Mountains of West Texas, has funneled travelers for millennia — from prehistoric Native peoples who left flint points, to Spanish explorers, California-bound gold-seekers, the Butterfield Overland Mail stages of 1858–1861, and the great Goodnight-Loving cattle drives after 1866. A spring within the gap made it a vital watering stop on the road to Horsehead Crossing on the Pecos.
Mendoza Trail
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Castle Gap
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