Spanish Explorers
Pecos, Reeves County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Antonio De Espejo in 1583, after exploring among pueblos in New Mexico, reached the Pecos River southeast of Santa Fe. He Named it Rio de Las Vacas (river of cows), for the abundance of buffalo. On his return route to Mexico he went down the river to near the present town of Pecos. Jumano Indians led his party to their camp on Toyah Lake. He then went down Toyah Creek and through the Big Bend. While Espejo was first to explore the Pecos, Castano de Sosa, on his way into New Mexico in 1590, was the first European to travel its full length. (1966)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Long before permanent settlement, Spanish explorers probed the country along the Pecos. In 1583 Antonio de Espejo, returning from the New Mexico pueblos, reached the river and named it Río de las Vacas for the great buffalo herds; guided by Jumano Indians to their camp on Toyah Lake, he followed the waters down toward the Big Bend. Seven years later, Castaño de Sosa became the first European to travel the Pecos its full length on his own march into New Mexico.
Why it matters
These expeditions mark the earliest European reconnaissance of West Texas, opening the routes and naming the land that Spain would claim generations before Anglo settlement.
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Related people
- · Antonio de Espejo
- · Castaño de Sosa
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Reeves County-Pecos, Texas
Pecos, TX
The flat, arid Toyah Valley around Pecos drew farmers to its river and springs long before the town existed—Native people are believed to have irrigated crops here in the 16th century, and Mexican farmers later raised grain and vegetables. Cattlemen arrived in the 1870s, and the Texas & Pacific Railway's 1882 line to El Paso brought merchants and mechanics to Pecos City and Toyah. Large-scale irrigated agriculture began around 1900, aided by deep wells and the 1935 dam, the only one on the Pecos River in Texas.
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In 1849 Texas Rangers and statesmen Robert S. Neighbors and John S. "Rip" Ford opened the first wagon road from Austin to El Paso, guided by the Delaware scout Jim Shaw and a Comanche named Guadalupe. Leaving the Pecos, they followed Toyah Creek to the Davis Mountains and pushed west to the Rio Grande, and on the return—their rations gone—they subsisted on roasted mescal, panther, and horse meat. The route they proved out, with its wood and water, became a major stage, military, and emigrant road.
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