Site of Fort Stockton
Ft. Stockton, Pecos County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Established on the Comanche Trail March 23, 1859, as a protection to the San Antonio-San Diego mail route. Named in honor of Commodore Robert Field Stockton, 1795-1866, who captured California for the United States. A stage stand on the San Diego Line, 1858-1861. Evacuated by federal troops during the civil war, reoccupied July, 1867. Permanently abandoned June 30, 1886.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Founded on the Comanche Trail in 1859, Fort Stockton guarded the San Antonio-San Diego mail route and was named for Commodore Robert Field Stockton, who had helped seize California for the United States. Federal troops abandoned it during the Civil War and reoccupied it in 1867 as the army worked to curb Comanche raids and protect westward travel. The post was permanently abandoned in 1886 as the frontier it policed faded away.
Why it matters
It stands for the chain of frontier army posts that shielded mail routes and settlers while pressing the Comanche off their homelands during the westward expansion.
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Related people
- · Commodore Robert Field Stockton
Related events
- · San Antonio-San Diego mail route
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Old Fort Cemetery
Ft. Stockton, TX
This ground served as the burial place for soldiers of Fort Stockton and the civilians of the town that grew beside it after the post's founding in 1859. Troops here guarded the San Antonio–San Diego mail line and countered raids along the Comanche Trail, and the graves testify to a brutal frontier where few lived past forty. When the fort closed for good, the remains of 56 soldiers were reinterred at Fort Sam Houston in 1888.
Fort Pena Colorada (Red Rock)
Marathon, TX
Established in 1880 in the rugged Big Bend country, Fort Peña Colorada guarded the water and passes near Marathon against raids across the Mexican border. Apaches struck the post in 1881 during the last years of the Indian Wars in far West Texas. With the frontier considered pacified, the fort was abandoned in 1893.
Fort Stockton, C.S.A.
Ft. Stockton, TX
After Federal troops abandoned it at the start of the Civil War, Fort Stockton was occupied by the 2nd Regiment Texas Mounted Rifles as part of the Confederacy's far-western defense line and its bid to reach the Pacific through the Arizona–New Mexico campaign of 1861–62. Comanche and Apache activity centered on the area, and California Union troops came to dominate the region from 1862 to 1865. The post also drew Union sympathizers and others hoping to escape the war.
Site of Comanche Springs
St. Stockton, TX
Fed by water rising along geological faults, Comanche Springs gushed as one of the largest and most reliable oases in arid West Texas, drawing Native peoples since pre-Columbian times. Spanish wanderers — possibly Cabeza de Vaca around 1536 and the Mendoza expedition in 1684 — paused at its waters, as later did Comanche raiders on their war trail, gold seekers bound for California, and the Butterfield Overland Mail. Modern irrigation eventually drew down the aquifer until the springs ran dry.