Horsehead Crossing, C.S.A.
Crane, Crane County, Texas
Marker Inscription
(about 10 mi. NW) One of the most important sites in the old west. Named for skulls pointing toward crossing. Only ford for many miles where animals could enter, drink and leave Pecos River safely. Elsewhere deep banks would trap them. Ford mapped 1849 by Capt. R. B. Marcy, head of army escort for parties on way to California gold rush. Used in 1850's by frontier fighter and scout Henry Skillman, contractor for first mail route from San Antonio to El Paso. As change station, echoed with brass bugle call of Butterfield coach carrying mail from St. Louis to San Francisco, in first stage service to span continent, 1858-1861. During the Civil War, 1861-1865, used by wagons hauling highly valuable salt scooped from bed of nearby Juan Cordona Lake, to meet Texas scarcities. Also scene of spying and counterspying of Federal and Confederates watching Overland Trail. Federal, operating out of El Paso, feared invasion by way of Horsehead. Confederates several times threw back armies that sought to enter the state in order to deploy along the old Overland Trail and conquer north and west Texas. Later this became important crossing for cattle on Goodnight-Loving trail, mapped in 1866. (1965)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Named for the skulls that once pointed the way to it, Horsehead Crossing was for decades the only safe place for miles where animals could reach the Pecos River without being trapped by its steep banks. Mapped in 1849 by Capt. R. B. Marcy for California-bound gold-seekers, it became a Butterfield Overland Mail stage stop from 1858 to 1861, then a Civil War route for hauling salt and a stage for Union and Confederate spying along the frontier. After the war it carried cattle north on the Goodnight-Loving Trail, mapped in 1866.
Why it matters
Few places pack so much of the Old West into a single river ford, from gold-rush trails and transcontinental mail to Civil War intrigue and the great cattle drives that made Texas legendary.
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Related people
- · R. B. Marcy
- · Henry Skillman
- · Charles Goodnight
- · Oliver Loving
Related events
- · Butterfield Overland Mail
- · Goodnight-Loving Trail
- · California Gold Rush
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Mendoza Trail
McCamey, TX
In 1683–1684, Lt. Gen. Juan Dominguez de Mendoza led a party of 35 across the future Upton County on a Spanish expedition to explore the Pecos Plains, gather river pearls, and bring Christianity to the Jumano Indians. Setting out from below El Paso, the group founded San Clemente Mission where the Concho met the Colorado. Two centuries later, cattlemen following the Goodnight-Loving trail retraced part of Mendoza's route.
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
McCamey, TX
A mile-long gap between Castle and King mountains, Castle Gap funneled nearly the whole pageant of West Texas travel through one narrow pass. Comanche war parties, the Spanish explorer Rabago y Teran, gold-rush '49ers, Butterfield Overland Mail coaches from 1858 to 1861, and the Goodnight-Loving cattle trail after 1866 all passed this way, and legend places buried Maximilian treasure nearby. Today its old coach ruts fade quietly into the desert.
Horse Head Crossing on the Pecos River
Girvin, TX
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.