Comanche Trail

{{Short description|Comanche travel route in Texas}} The '''Comanche Trail''', sometimes called the '''Comanche War Trail''' or the '''Comanche Trace''', was a travel route in Texas established by the nomadic Comanche and their Kiowa and Kiowa Apache allies. Although called a "trail," the Comanche Trail was actually a network of parallel and branching trails, always running from one source of good water to another. The trail was especially important from the 1830s to 1850s when the Comanche launched large scale raids from Texas into Mexico. Hundreds of warriors annually followed the trail southward in fall and returned with their booty, mostly livestock, in late winter or spring. [[File:Comanche raids into Mexico.jpg|thumb|250px|right|To raid Mexico, the Comanche Trail started in Big Spring, Texas and penetrated deep into Mexico by several routes.]] == Description == The route ran from the Comanche summer hunting grounds on the Great Plains of northern Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Colorado, and Kansas to the Rio Grande river which formed the border of the United States and Mexico. In the 18th century, the Spanish had established a line of missions and presidios to defend from what was then called New Spain from the Comanche and other Indian tribes. Mexican independence from Spain in 1821 resulted in a decrease in the new country's capability to defend itself from Indian raids. At the same time, there was a growing demand for livestock, especially horses and mules, in the expanding United States. The Comanche took advantage of the situation by raiding hundreds of miles deep into Mexico for livestock which they marketed in the United States.<ref name="DeLay1">{{cite journal |last1=DeLay |first1=Brian |title=Independent Indians and the U.S. Mexican War |journal=The American Historical Review |date=2007 |volume=112 |issue=1 |pages=34-35 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stale/4136006 |access-date=20 December 2023}}</ref> By 1857 parts of the trail had been named and appeared on maps.<ref name="ht1">{{cite web|last=Holden|first=William Curry|title=Comanche Trail|url=http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/exc03|work=Handbook of Texas Online|publisher=Texas State Historical Association}}</ref> The Comanche launched their raids on Mexico in autumn, riding south on nights with a full moon, called a Comanche Moon in Texas. <ref name="Dobie">{{cite web |last1=Dobie |first1=J. Frank |title=The Comanches and their Horses |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43463667?|website=JSTOR |publisher=Southwestern Review |access-date=25 February 2024}}</ref>

Following water sources, the primary trail ran north from two starting points on the Rio Grande River, one at Boquillas and the other at Presidio, with crossings of the river at both locations. The legs of the trail met at Comanche Springs, near Fort Stockton, Texas and Las Moras Springs near Fort Clark.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://atlas.thc.texas.gov/Details/5371004757 |title=Comanche Springs - Ft. Stockton ~ Marker Number: 4757 |website=Texas Historic Sites Atlas |publisher=Texas Historical Commission}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://maps.lib.utexas.edu/maps/historical/tex_fedforts_1866.jpg |title=Federal Forts in Texas 1866-1890 |website=Historical Maps of Texas ~ Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection |publisher=The University of Texas at Austin}}</ref> The trail continued north to cross the Pecos River in the vicinity of Horsehead Crossing,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://atlas.thc.texas.gov/Details/5371002564 |title=Horsehead Crossing on the Pecos River - Girvin ~ Marker Number: 2564 |date=1936 |website=Texas Historic Sites Atlas |publisher=Texas Historical Commission}}</ref> bending northeast to the area of Odessa and Big Spring, Texas.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://atlas.thc.texas.gov/Details/5135000996 |title=Comanche War Trail - Odessa ~ Marker Number: 996 |date=1964 |website=Texas Historic Sites Atlas |publisher=Texas Historical Commission}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://atlas.thc.texas.gov/Details/5227012670 |title=Comanche War Trail - Big Spring ~ Marker Number: 12670 |date=1966 |location=Big Spring State Park |website=Texas Historic Sites Atlas |publisher=Texas Historical Commission}}</ref> From there the Comanche Trail ran east past the Caprock Escarpment and on across the Llano Estacado by two separate routes. One branch ran to the vicinity of Lubbock and along the Double Mountains (Texas) fork of the Brazos River to near the present site of Abernathy, to near Littlefield,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://atlas.thc.texas.gov/Details/5279000997 |title=Comanchero Trail - Littlefield ~ Marker Number: 997 |date=1970 |website=Texas Historic Sites Atlas |publisher=Texas Historical Commission}}</ref> then via a series of springs to the Pecos River near Fort Sumner. A separate fork ran from Big Spring, Texas to near Plainview, Texas, rejoining the other route to the east of Muleshoe.<ref name=ht1/> Northern branches of the trail ran through the Texas Panhandle into Oklahoma, Colorado and Kansas. Southern branches extended into northern Mexico through Chihuahua, Coahuila and Durango to Zacatecas and San Luis Potosi, while an eastern fork ran from Big Spring, Texas southeast to Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas.<ref>{{cite web|title=Trails of the Trans-Pecos|url=http://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/forts/davis/trails.html|work=Texas Beyond History|publisher=Texas Archeological Research Laboratory|accessdate=31 October 2011|date=June 30, 2003}}</ref>

The Comanche Trail was noted as a beaten path as much as a mile wide. Much of the southeastern leg of the main trail runs through what is now Big Bend National Park, leaving the park through Persimmon Gap in the Santiago Mountains in the northern portion of the park.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://atlas.thc.texas.gov/Details/5043000994 |title=Comanche Trail - Marathon ~ Marker Number: 994 |date=1936 |website=Texas Historic Sites Atlas |publisher=Texas Historical Commission}}</ref> U.S. Route 385 follows the same route through parts of the park.<ref name=nps1>{{cite web|title=The Comanche Trail|url=https://www.nps.gov/bibe/learn/historyculture/comanche_trail.htm|work=Big Bend National Park|publisher=National Park Service|access-date=31 October 2011}}</ref>

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== * [https://www.nps.gov/bibe/learn/historyculture/comanche_trail.htm The Comanche Trail] at Big Bend National Park * [http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/exc03 Comanche Trail] at the Handbook of Texas Online * [https://www.flickr.com/photos/lakota_sioux_and_comanche_indians/11440045435/sizes/o/in/photostream/ Detailed color map of the Great Comanche War Trail]

Category:Historic trails and roads in Texas Category:Trails and roads in the American Old West