Related Research Articles
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 San Antonio–San Diego Mail Line, also known as the Jackass Mail, was the earliest overland stagecoach and mail operation from the Eastern United States to California in operation between 1857 and 1861. It was created, organized and financed by James E. Birch the head of the California Stage Company. Birch was awarded the first contract for overland service on the "Southern Route", designated Route 8076. This contract required a semi-monthly service in four-horse coaches, scheduled to leave San Antonio and San Diego on the ninth and the 24th of each month, with 30 days allowed for each trip.
Green Valley, is a valley in the Cuyamaca Mountains in San Diego County, California. The Sweetwater River flows through Green Valley, and has its source at the top of Upper Green Valley.
Seco Creek, is a tributary stream of the Hondo Creek, in Frio County, Texas. Named Rio Seco in 1689 by Captain Alonso De León, governor of Coahuila, when his expedition crossed the creek.
Birchville, or Smith Ranch, now a ghost town, in what is now Hudspeth County, Texas. Birchville was a settlement on the San Antonio-El Paso Road in what was El Paso County. Birchville lay 35 miles northwest of the First Camp on Rio Grande and 24.8 miles southeast of San Elizario, according to the table of distances for the San Antonio-San Diego Mail Line in the Texas Almanac of 1857. Later used as a station on the Butterfield Overland Mail, the distances to the station for that line were given as 241⁄2 miles from San Elizario, 33 miles from Fort Quitman.
California Spring, or Yellow Banks, is a spring at the headwaters of Evans Creek, in Val Verde County, 4.8 miles northeast of Comstock.
The First Crossing of Devils River was the first point at which the Devils River was crossed by the San Antonio-El Paso Road. It was located 10.22 miles west of San Felipe Springs at the mouth of San Pedro Creek on the Devils River. It was 2.54 miles southeast of Painted Caves, on California Creek, a noted camp location on the road. The crossing point and the gorge leading down to it from the east are now submerged under Lake Amistad.
Gillis Springs, formerly Willow Spring, is a historical spring, two miles, (3 km) northwest of California Spring in Val Verde County, Texas.
Socatoon Station, was a stagecoach station of the Butterfield Overland Mail between 1858 and 1861. It was located four miles east of Sacaton a Maricopa village from which it took its name. This station was located 22 miles east of Maricopa Wells Station and 11 miles east of Casa Blanca Station and 13 miles north of Oneida Station.
Painted Caves was a cave containing a spring in Val Verde County, Texas, 20 kilometers southeast of Comstock, Texas. The cave accompanied a camp site along the San Antonio-El Paso Road on Painted Cave Spring Creek and was named for the indigenous cave paintings found inside. It was located 2.54 miles northwest of the First Crossing of Devils River and 15.73 miles southeast of California Spring. The cave is now submerged under Lake Amistad.
Howard Springs, was a historical spring, located in the stream channel of Howard Draw at an elevation of 2031 feet, just north of the mouth of Government Canyon at its confluence with Howard Draw in what is now Crockett County, Texas.
Head of Devil's River, a place on the Devils River where it has its confluence with Pecos Canyon at an elevation of 1722 feet, below Beaver Lake, nineteen and a half miles above the second crossing of Devils River. Here the San Antonio-El Paso Road left the Devils River to go northwest, 44 miles across Johnson Draw, Government Canyon and Howard Draw to Howard Springs, then 30.44 miles on to Live Oak Creek and Fort Lancaster, 3 miles further near the Pecos River.
Pecos Spring is a spring, 1.1 miles (3 km) northeast of Sheffield, in Pecos County, Texas. It lies at an elevation of 2060 feet. Pecos Spring was emitted from the Edwards and associated limestones of the Edwards-Trinity (Plateau) aquifer. On March 7, 1924, it discharged 0.7 cubic feet per second but by August 17, 1943, that had been reduced to 0.5 cubic feet per second. By 1961, its flow had ceased.
Nugents Pass or Nugent's Pass is a gap at an elevation of 4,593 feet (1,400 m) in Cochise County, Arizona. The pass was named for John Nugent, who provided notes of his journey with a party of Forty-Niners across what became the Tucson Cutoff to Lt. John G. Parke, on expedition to identify a feasible railroad route from the Pima Villages to the Rio Grande.
Cow Springs Ranch is a locale, located in Luna County, New Mexico. The ranch headquarters is located at Cow Springs, originally Ojo de Vaca.
The Tucson Cutoff was a significant change in the route of the Southern Emigrant Trail. It became generally known after a party of Forty-Niners led by Colonel John Coffee Hays followed a route suggested to him by a Mexican Army officer as a shorter route than Cooke's Wagon Road which passed farther south to cross the mountains to the San Pedro River at Guadalupe Pass.
Leaving of Pecos was originally a camping place along the west bank of the Pecos River, on the wagon road called the Lower Emigrant Road, Military Road or San Antonio-El Paso Road in Texas. It was located 38 miles north of the Lancaster Crossing of the Pecos, and 16 miles east of the first crossing of Escondido Creek. It was also located a mile north of where the wagon road had its junction with a cutoff to the north to the wagon road called the Upper Emigrant Road between Fredericksburg, Texas and Comanche Springs, now Fort Stockton, Texas, where it joined the Lower Emigrant Road. It was later a stopping place on the route of San Antonio - El Paso Mail and the San Antonio-San Diego Mail Line.
Cooke's Wagon Road or Cooke's Road was the first wagon road between the Rio Grande and the Colorado River to San Diego, through the Mexican provinces of Nuevo México, Chihuahua, Sonora and Alta California, established by Philip St. George Cooke and the Mormon Battalion, from October 19, 1846 to January 29, 1847 during the Mexican–American War. It became the first of the wagon routes between New Mexico and California that with subsequent modifications before and during the California Gold Rush eventually became known as the Southern Trail or Southern Emigrant Trail.
Point of Rocks also known as Bald Rock, is a hill and a locale in Jeff Davis County, Texas. Point of Rocks, is an isolated hill with a spring once known as Bald Rock Spring. It was used as a watering place and campsite on the San Antonio-El Paso Road, 10 miles west of Fort Davis, Texas, now Point of Rocks Roadside Park. The elevation of Point of Rocks Spring, is at 5,469 feet / 1,667 meters, at the foot of the southeast slope of the Point of Rocks that reaches over 5,920 feet along its crest.
Antelope Peak Station, a later Butterfield Overland Mail station located 15.14 miles east of Mission Camp, at the foot of Antelope Peak. It replaced Filibusters Camp Station, 6 miles to the west. The Overland Mail Company replaced Filibusters Camp, because Antelope Peak Station had a better water supply. Its location is thought to be 32°42′47″N114°00′54″W.
References
- ↑ 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
- ↑ Robert Eccleston, Edited by George P. Hammond and Edward H. Howes, Overland to California on the Southwestern Trail, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1950, pp.74-75, note 1, p74
- ↑ U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Beaver Lake Ranch
Coordinates: 30°10′45″N101°04′15″W / 30.17916°N 101.0708°W