Military Road (Ft. Belknap-Ft. Phantom Hill)
Newcastle, Young County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Past this point extended a military road surveyed in 1849 by Colonel J. E. Johnson who was detailed by the U.S. War Department to locate the most feasible route from Red River to El Paso. From 1851 to 1854 it connected two frontier forts, Belknap and Phantom Hill, 73 miles apart. Traveled 1858 to 1861 by stages of the Butterfield line which connected St. Louis and San Francisco.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
An Army officer surveyed this route in 1849 under War Department orders to find the best path from the Red River to El Paso, and for a few years in the early 1850s the road linked the frontier posts of Fort Belknap and Fort Phantom Hill some seventy miles apart. Later in the decade it carried the coaches of the Butterfield Overland Mail on their long run between St. Louis and San Francisco.
Why it matters
This corridor knit together the chain of frontier forts and transcontinental mail routes that pushed American settlement and communication across the Southwest.
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Related events
- · Butterfield Overland Mail
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Two Miles Southwest to Fort Belknap
Newcastle, TX
Established in 1850, Fort Belknap became the largest military post in northern Texas, anchoring the line of frontier defense against raids on the settlements. It served as the first county seat of Young County and, from 1858 to 1861, as a station on the Southern Overland Mail linking St. Louis to San Francisco. This marker points travelers two miles southwest to its site.
Military Road (Ft. Belknap-San Antonio)
Newcastle, TX
In 1851 Lieutenant Francis T. Bryan of the U.S. Army blazed a military road past this point, connecting Fort Belknap with San Antonio across the Texas frontier. The route carried troops, supply trains, and settlers pushing into the western reaches of the state. Such roads formed the framework of army logistics and westward migration in the decade before the Civil War.
Old Fort Belknap Powder Magazine
Newcastle, TX
This powder magazine is the best-preserved original building of Fort Belknap, one in a chain of federal posts strung from the Red River to the Rio Grande to shield settlers after Texas joined the Union. Named for its builder, Brig. Gen. W. G. Belknap, the fort held sixteen stone and picket houses by 1853 on the edge of contested frontier country. The State of Texas restored the magazine in 1936.
Butterfield Overland Stages
Newcastle, TX
For a few years on the eve of the Civil War, the Butterfield Overland stagecoaches thundered across this county twice a week, part of a mail and passenger line stretching from St. Louis to San Francisco. A station at Fort Belknap gave travelers a stop along the way. The route knit the far-flung country together until the war and the coming railroads closed the chapter.