Pegleg Crossing on the San Saba
Menard, Menard County, Texas
Marker Inscription
An hourglass-shaped pass through the hills where McDougal Creek joins San Saba River. For years a favored Indian campground, it entered written history, 1732, as site of Spanish-Apache battle. Saw passage of adventurers, mustang hunters, Indian fighters, German settlers, gold-seekers. Probably named by landowner Wilhelm Harlen for one-legged land commissioner T.W. Ward. Crossing became station on stage line. Gained notoriety for many hold-ups that occurred at "Robbers' Roost" (1 mile west). Pegleg served in later era as crossing on Great Western Cattle Trail.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This hourglass-shaped pass where McDougal Creek meets the San Saba River was a favored Native American campground long before it entered written history in 1732 as the site of a Spanish-Apache battle. Over the following generations it saw mustang hunters, Indian fighters, German settlers, and gold-seekers pass through, and it became a stagecoach station named—so the story goes—for a one-legged land commissioner. Its nearby 'Robbers' Roost' gained notoriety for hold-ups, and the crossing later served the Great Western Cattle Trail.
Why it matters
Pegleg Crossing layers Indigenous, Spanish, and Anglo frontier history onto a single river ford, tracing the violent and mobile world of the Texas hill country from colonial conflict to the great cattle drives.
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Related people
- · T. W. Ward
- · Wilhelm Harlen
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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