Route of Jones & Plummer Trail
Booker, Lipscomb County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Established about 1874, when used by the freighting firm of Ed Jones and Joe Plummer to haul tons of buffalo hides from their general store in Lipscomb County to Dodge City, Kansas. Also, in its early days, this trail carried crucial supplies to Generals Nelson Miles and Philip Sheridan during their famous 1874 Indian campaign. Materials for building Fort Elliott, at Mobeetie, also came over the trail. The fort then became southern terminus for the route; Dodge City, northern. In its later years (until 1885), it became a cattle trail. (1968)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Opened around 1874, the Jones & Plummer Trail began as a freight route hauling buffalo hides north from the Texas Panhandle to the railhead at Dodge City, Kansas. In the same violent year it carried supplies to the U.S. Army campaign against the Southern Plains tribes and hauled materials to build Fort Elliott near Mobeetie. As the buffalo vanished and ranching took hold, the old hide road became a cattle trail before fading out around 1885.
Why it matters
In a single decade this one dusty track carried the whole story of the Plains frontier — buffalo hunting, army campaigns, fort-building, and the rise of the cattle economy that replaced them all.
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Related people
- · Ed Jones
- · Joe Plummer
- · Nelson Miles
- · Philip Sheridan
Related events
- · 1874 Red River War campaign
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Site of the Trading Post
Perryton, TX
C. E. Jones opened this trading post in 1874 along the Jones and Plummer Trail, the freight and cattle route running from Dodge City, Kansas, down to Mobeetie in the Texas Panhandle. At first it dealt food and cloth to Native peoples in exchange for hides; as ranching took hold, it became a supply stop for cattlemen hauling goods up from Dodge City. The State of Texas marked the site in 1936.
The Canadian River
Amarillo, TX
For more than 12,000 years the Canadian River drew people to its banks, from ancient travelers to the stone-and-adobe village builders of the 1100s–1300s. It became one of the first interior rivers Europeans knew: Coronado forded it in 1541 chasing the golden rumor of Quivira, and Oñate followed in 1601. Later it guided French traders, Santa Fe merchants like Josiah Gregg, and California-bound emigrants escorted west by Captain Marcy in 1849.
Booker
Booker, TX
Booker owes its existence to the Santa Fe Railway's push across the Texas Panhandle in the years around World War I. Platted in 1917 and named for a railroad locating engineer, the town literally absorbed a neighbor: the community of La Kemp, Oklahoma, six miles north, picked up and moved to the rails in 1919. When the first train pulled in on July 4, 1919, residents marked it as the town's true birthday.
Heart Cemetery
Booker, TX
Booker was platted in 1917 and named for a Panhandle and Santa Fe Railway engineer, its first residents relocating wholesale from La Kemp, Oklahoma, to the new rail town. As the community grew it needed a burial ground, and in 1929 the town dedicated land donated by the Mitchell family as Heart Cemetery, named for its heart-shaped design. Among its graves are the town's first physician, its early business leaders, and veterans reaching back to World War I.