William Becknell

Clarksville, TX

Born in Virginia around 1787, William Becknell became one of the great pathfinders of the American frontier. A veteran of the War of 1812 who fought at the Battle of Credit Island, he organized a trading party in 1821 that reached Santa Fe just after Mexico won independence from Spain, opening legal commerce along what became the Santa Fe Trail. He later settled in Red River County, where he led a militia company protecting frontier settlers.

Clarksville, TX

William Becknell of Missouri is remembered as the "Father of the Santa Fe Trail," opening that trade route from the United States into Spanish territory in 1821. In 1835 he settled with his family on Becknell's Prairie in present-day Red River County, where—according to tradition—David Crockett visited them on his way to the Alamo, and Becknell himself fought in the 1836 Texas War for Independence. The earliest part of this house dates to his family's settlement, later enlarged, relocated, and restored in 1968.

Paris, TX

Born in Virginia in 1793 and a veteran of the War of 1812, George Washington Stell, Sr. joined the wave of settlers pouring into the young Republic of Texas in the late 1830s. A farmer, surveyor, and builder who was deaf, he raised the first courthouse in Paris after it became the Lamar County seat in 1844. He also charted the Central National Road, a 130-mile artery from the Trinity River to the Red River that helped draw settlers into northeast Texas.

Bogata, TX

When the Ringo family arrived from Missouri in 1840 with nine children, they set up a ferry across the Sulphur River that quickly became a lifeline for travel, trade, and news between the Red River country and central Texas. Their son expanded the family's holdings on both banks, and the crossing carried travelers until a bridge replaced it in 1900. Long after the ferry was gone, locals still called the spot Ringo's Crossing, and a small family cemetery marked the family's roots nearby.