Wild Rose Pass
Fort Davis, Jeff Davis County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In early days the Indian trail through these mountains followed the gorge below known as Limpia Canyon. To avoid the floods travelers over the San Antonio - El Paso Road, emigrants, U.S. troops and supply trains, and the mail chose this higher pass famed for its wealth of wild roses. Erected by the State of Texas 1956.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Long before wagons rolled through, an Indian trail wound through these mountains along the floor of Limpia Canyon. To escape flash floods, travelers on the San Antonio–El Paso Road — emigrants, U.S. troops, and supply and mail trains — climbed instead to this higher gap, which they named for the wild roses that grew there. It became a landmark of the mid-19th-century overland route across far West Texas.
Why it matters
Passes like this stitched together the southern road to the Pacific, carrying the mail, the military, and the migrants who pushed American settlement toward El Paso and beyond.
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