The
San Antonio?El Paso Road,
also known as the
Lower Emigrant Road
or
Military Road,
was an economically important trade route between the
Texas
cities of
San Antonio
and
El Paso
between 1849 and 1882. Mail, freight, and passengers traveled by horse and wagon along this road across the
Edwards Plateau
and dangerous
Trans-Pecos
region of
West Texas
.
The "
Upper Emigrant Road
" originated at
Austin
and skirted the north of the Edwards Plateau. It intersected the Lower Road near
Comanche Springs
west of
Horsehead Crossing
of the
Pecos River
.
[1]
In 1848, businessmen in San Antonio hired
John Coffee Hays
to find a route to El Paso. Hays and a squad of
Texas Rangers
spent three and a half months on their quest, but only made it as far as
Presidio
due to lack of food and water.
By 1849, gold seekers wishing to get to
California
to stake claims were arriving in Texas and looking for opportunities to travel west.
Brevet
Major General
William J. Worth
ordered
Lieutenant
William H.C. Whiting
and Lieutenant
William Farrar Smith
to find a suitable route to El Paso. They were to follow Hays' trail to Presidio and continue up the
Rio Grande
to El Paso. The team made it to El Paso, but believed the route was unsatisfactory. On the return trip, they traveled down the Rio Grande for 100 miles, then headed east for the
Pecos River
. They followed the Pecos to
Devils River
and the Devils back to the Rio Grande. From there, they headed east to San Antonio.
Brevet
Brigadier General
William S. Harney
, commanding the
Army
in Texas after General Worth's death in the San Antonio
cholera
epidemic, ordered Lieutenant Smith to accompany
Lieutenant Colonel
Joseph E. Johnston
on another survey expedition to El Paso. The survey party was escorted by a
company
of the First Infantry. Also, six companies of the Third Infantry and a group of California-bound
immigrants
accompanied them.
[2]
One of these Forty-niners, Robert Eccleston, wrote a journal describing incidents of the journey and the land they passed over, with the mileage, each day along the route.
[3]
The trail they followed to El Paso differed only slightly from Whiting and Smith's return route. This trail became known as the
Lower
or
Military Road,
and then the
San Antonio?El Paso Road
.
"In 1850, the largest supply train to use the road" left
Fort Inge
for El Paso with 340 wagons, 4000 animals, 450 civilians, and 175 soldiers.
[2]
To protect people and supplies along the road from
Indians
and
bandits
, the Army constructed a series of
fortifications
: These included
Fort Inge
(1849?1869),
Fort Clark
(1852?1944),
Fort Lancaster
(1855?1862, 1867?1874),
Fort Stockton
(1859?1862, 1867?1886),
Fort Davis
(1854?1862, 1867?1891),
Fort Quitman
(1858?1861, 1868?1877, 1880?1882), and
Fort Bliss
(1849?). The road was used for the
San Antonio-El Paso Mail
from 1851?1862 and 1866?1882, and as part of the
San Antonio-San Diego Mail Line
route in 1857?1858. The
Butterfield Overland Mail
began using the Lower Road from Fort Stockton to El Paso in 1859?1861.
1859 table of distances along the San Antonio-El Paso Road
[
edit
]
These distances were measured from one station or watering place to another from starting point.
[4]
- San Antonio
to
Leon River
, 6.53 miles
- Leon river to
Castroville
, on the
Medina River
, 18.0 miles
- Castroville to
Dharris
Seco River
, 25.28 miles
- Dharris to
Rancheros Creek
, 8.38 miles
- Ranchero Creek to
Sabinal River
, 3.94 miles
- Sabinal Creek to
Camanche Creek
, 5.0 miles
- Camanche Creek to
Rio Frio
, 8.46 miles
- Rio Frio to head of
Leona River
, "
Uvalde
", Fort Inge 6.08 miles
- Uvalde to
Nueces River
, 9.04 miles
- Nueces to
Turkey Creek
, 10.27 miles
- Turkey Creek to
Elm Creek
, 15.23 miles
- Elm Creek to
Las Moras River
, Fort Clarke, 7.13 miles / 123.34 miles
---
---
---
- Fort Lancaster to
Pecos Crossing
, 4.29 miles
- Pecos Crossing to
Pecos Spring
, 6 miles
- Pecos Spring to
Leaving of Pecos
, 32.26 miles
- Leaving of Pecos to
Arroyo Escondido
, 16.26 miles
- Arroyo Escondido to
Escondido Spring
, 8.58 miles
- Escondido Spring to
Comanche Springs
, 19.40 miles
- Comanche Spring to
Leon Hole
, 8.88 miles
- Leon Hole to
Hackberry Pond
, 11 miles
- Hackberry pond to
Limpia Creek
, 32 miles
- Limpia creek to
Fort Davis
, 18.86 miles /157.99 miles
---
---
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Map, page 27, Woodhouse, S.W., edited and annotated by Andrew Wallace and Richard H. Hevly,
From Texas to San Diego in 1851: The Overland Journal of Dr. S.W. Woodhouse, Surgeon-Naturalist of the Sitgreaves Expedition
, Texas Tech University Press (2007), hardcover, 358 pages
ISBN
978-0-89672-597-3
- ^
a
b
Francell, Lawrence (1999).
Fort Lancaster
. Texas Parks and Wildlife Dept. p. 27.
- ^
Eccleston, Robert, edited by Hammond, George P. and Howes, Edward H.,
Overland to California on the Southwestern Trail 1849,
University of California Press, 1950.
- ^
Table of distances from Texas Almanac, 1859
, Book, ca. 1859; digital images, (
http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth123765/
accessed November 12, 2013), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History,
http://texashistory.unt.edu
; crediting Texas State Historical Association, Denton, Texas
- Francell, Lawrence John.
Fort Lancaster
. Texas State Historical Association, 1999.
- Military Map of the Rio Grande Frontier,
Prepared from Original Surveys, County Maps, Reports of Officers, & etc., by Capt. W. R. Livermore, 1883
Includes entire length of San-Antonio?El Paso Road, with landmarks.
- H. Stever, "Stagecoach Lines,"
Handbook of Texas Online,
accessed September 05, 2016
- Wayne R. Austerman, "San Antonio-El Paso Mail,
Handbook of Texas Online,
accessed September 06, 2016
- Reports of the Secretary of War: With Reconnaissances of Routes from San Antonio to El Paso, United States.
Army. Corps of Topographical Engineers, Printed at the Union office, Washington, 1850
External links
[
edit
]