Sugarloaf Mountain
Gause, Milam County, Texas
Marker Inscription
SUGARLOAF MOUNTAIN SUGARLOAF MOUNTAIN IS LOCATED NEAR THE CONFLUENCE OF LITTLE RIVER AND BRAZOS RIVER AND IS CAPPED WITH RED SANDSTONE ROCK. A LARGE AMERICAN INDIAN GROUP LIVED IN A VILLAGE KNOWN AS RANCHERIA GRANDE DE LOS ERVIPIAME. REMNANTS OF TWENTY-TWO NATIONS COMPRISED THE GROUP, BUT THE ERVIPIAME WERE THE DOMINANT MEMBERS. SOME OF THE ERVIPIAME LATER ENTERED THE SAN ANTONIO MISSIONS, BUT MOST JOINED THE TONKAWA, MAYEYE AND YOJUANE TRIBES. EARLY AMERICAN SETTLERS LEARNED OF THE INDIAN TRAILS AND USED THEM WHEN TRAVELING. SUGARLOAF MOUNTAIN WAS AN IMPORTANT LANDMARK ON THE OLD ROAD SYSTEM, LATER IDENTIFIED AS PART OF EL CAMINO REAL OR “THE KING’S HIGHWAY,” AND WAS USED UNTIL 1790. DURING THE 1820s, A SIMILAR ROUTE WAS USED THAT TRAVELED FROM SAN FELIPE TO THE WACO INDIAN VILLAGE, WHICH LATER BECAME WACO. IN 1866, TEXAS GOVERNOR J.W. THROCKMORTON SENT A LETTER TO THE DEPARTMENT OF INDIAN AFFAIRS GRANTING THE TONKAWA PEOPLE A LEAGUE OF LAND IN THE AREA, BUT THEY WERE ALREADY RELOCATED TO OKLAHOMA IN THE 1850s AND NEVER RECEIVED THEIR LAND. DEVELOPERS JAMES JACKSON AND JON HOLLOWAY PURCHASED THE LAND THAT CONTAINED SUGARLOAF MOUNTAIN WHICH THEY DIVIDED AND RESOLD. DURING THIS TIME, THE TOP OF THE MOUNTAIN WAS REMOVED BECAUSE IT WAS BELIEVED TO HOLD TREASURES BUT AFTER PUBLIC OUTCRY, THE DIGGING STOPPED. THE MOUNTAIN IS RECOGNIZED BY MILAM COUNTY, THE STATE OF TEXAS AND THE NATIONAL PARKS SERVICE AS AN IMPORTANT LANDMARK. MANY FROM THE TONKAWA NATIVE AMERICAN TRIBE BELIEVE THAT SUGARLOAF MOUNTAIN IS THE SITE OF THE ORIGINS OF THEIR PEOPLE. IN 2004, EL CAMINO REAL DE LOS TEJAS WAS DESIGNATED AS A NATIONAL HISTORIC TRAIL IN TEXAS.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Rising red-capped near where the Little and Brazos Rivers meet, Sugarloaf Mountain overlooked Rancheria Grande de los Ervipiame, a village that gathered the remnants of some twenty-two Native nations under the dominant Ervipiame. The landmark guided travelers along ancient Indian trails that became part of El Camino Real, the King's Highway, and it remains bound up with the Tonkawa, many of whom regard the mountain as the place of their people's origin — even as an 1866 promise of land here came only after the Tonkawa had already been forced toward Oklahoma.
Why it matters
The mountain holds together deep Indigenous history, Spanish colonial roadways, and the tragedy of Native removal in one place, a reminder that Texas's landscape carries stories long predating its Anglo settlement.
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Related people
- · J. W. Throckmorton
Related events
- · El Camino Real de los Tejas
Themes & tags
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