Published: May 16, 2008 09:09 am         

Ceremony will dedicate Comanche Trail historical marker at PK Lake

Special to the Index
POSSUM KINGDOM - A ceremony is set for Saturday to dedicate a Texas historical marker for the Comanche Trail.

The ceremony will take place at 11 a.m. Saturday at the Possum Kingdom Lake Chamber of Commerce, 362 North Farm-to-Market Road 2353.

The Comanche Trail was formed by the native Indians in the early 1700s and was also used by the early explorers between 1790 and 1810. The Comanche Trail stretched from the settlements in Northern Mexico to the Spanish frontier in Texas.

The trail enters the western side of Palo Pinto County crossing the Brazos River at the mouth of Caddo Creek, now beneath Possum Kingdom Lake. It continues up the present peninsula of Possum Kingdom Lake, turning northeast around McAdams Peak and crossing Dillingham Prairie to present day Spanish Fort on the Red River.

The Comanche Trail was much like a modern day interstate, transporting people and supplies from one culture to another.

Robert Weddle, often referred to as the “Dean of Texas Colonial History,” and author of numerous classic works on Spanish Texas such as “The San Saba Mission: Spanish Pivot in Texas” and “San Juan Bautista: Gateway to Spanish Texas,” and others on early Texas and Spain, will be the guest speaker.

The public is invited to attend and help honor the earliest visitors to Palo Pinto County.

Comanche war trail
A barbed, bristling flying wedge - the Comanches - rode into 18th century Texas, driving the Wichitas and Caddoes east, the apaches west, becoming lords of the south plains. harassed the Spanish and Anglo-Americans along frontier from Corpus Christi on the gulf up to the Red River, wrote their name in blood clear down to Zacatecas, Mexico, captured women, children and horses along their road of blood, tears and agony.

Many road converged into the great Comanche War Trail, which passed about 20 miles southeast of this marker.