Mackenzie Scout Trail
Lubbock, Lubbock County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This marks one route of the Mackenzie Scout Trail extending from Camp Supply, Crosby County to Fort Sumner, New Mexico and used by the Army, 1872-1875, by buffalo hunters, 1876-1878, and by cattlemen 1878 until the fencing of the range. Erected by Nancy Anderson Chapter, N.S.D.A.R. 1936. This block of granite is from the wall that encloses the grave of Nancy Anderson, 1750-1827, near Chester, S.C.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In the early 1870s the U.S. Army cut this scouting route across the West Texas plains, part of the campaigns that opened the Llano Estacado to outside travel. After the soldiers came the buffalo hunters of the late 1870s, and then the cattlemen who drove herds across the open range until barbed wire fenced it in. The granite block itself carries a poignant twist: it was taken from the graveyard wall of a South Carolina woman, Nancy Anderson, and set here by her descendants in the D.A.R.
Why it matters
The trail traces the swift, wrenching transformation of the Texas plains from open hunting ground to fenced ranchland within a single generation, a defining chapter of westward expansion.
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Themes & tags
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