H ORSEHEAD C ROSSING
by Bob Miles
Main Street
Marfa
Gift Shop
HORSEHEAD CROSSING ON THE PECOS RIVER
Here crossed the undated Comanche Trail from Llano Estacado to Mexico. In 1850 John R. Bartlett, while
surveying the Mexican boundary, found the crossing marked by skulls of horses; hence the name "Horse Head." The
Southern Overland Mail (Butterfield) route, St. Louis to San Francisco, 1858-1861, and the road west from Fort
Concho crossed here.
The Goodnight-Loving Trail, established in 1866 and trod by tens of thousands of Texas longhorns, came here
and turned up the east bank of the Pecos for Fort Sumner and into Colorado. 1936
T
oday the narrow, crooked Pecos River
is less than impressive. Efforts to con-
trol invasive brush along the banks
have left it bare and blackened. Upstream,
dams have tamed the Pecos which was once a
real river and a formidable
barrier to travelers headed
west. The steep banks,
unpredictable currents,
floods and quicksand
offered few places to ford
the river in arid West
Texas.
Located near Girvin,
some 30 miles northeast of
Fort Stockton as the crow
flies, Horsehead Crossing
became notorious for hard-
ship and disaster for forty-
niners, emigrants and cat-
tlemen. When the Spanish
moved into northern
Mexico, the Comanche found rich pickings
raiding the settlements and haciendas for live-
stock and loot. Pushing the livestock hard
across the dry land to the Pecos River on their
return to the Texas’ high plains, many ani-
mals died, either from the dry march or from
plunging into the river or drinking too much
water, in the vicinity of the crossing. Their
bleaching skulls and bones were left to mark
the spot that would become known as
Horsehead Crossing.
After the Mexican War ended and gold
was discovered in California, Texas Ranger
John S. "Rip" Ford and Texas Indian Agent
Robert S. Neighbors led an expedition to find
a suitable road from the Texas settlements to
El Paso. They found that some people were
so anxious to get to the gold fields that they
did not wait for a road and struck out on their
own across unknown West Texas. The expe-
dition encountered one such group at
Horsehead Crossing. Some of the gold seek-
ers were enjoying long-overdue baths in the
river when the Ford-Neighbors party, with
both Comanches and Apaches accompany-
ing them, came into view, causing a panic as
the gold seekers ran for their firearms. Once
armed, they realized that there was no danger
and that they were naked!
Aside from the lack of
water on the approach to
the treeless river, there was
the threat of Comanches
and Kiowas on the east
side, Apaches on the west
side and outlaws on both
sides. One California-
bound traveler called the
crossing "the very abode
and throne of death."
Stagecoaches soon fol-
lowed and a stage station
was built near the crossing
for
the
Butterfield
Overland Mail. Following
the War Between the
States, Texas found itself with an overabun-
dance of cattle but no market and the days of
the cattle drives began. Many herds were
taken west to New Mexico to feed the Indians
now on reservations. Many thousands of cat-
tle were driven through Horsehead Crossing
on what became the Goodnight-Loving Trail.
And thousands left their lives along the trail,
unable to make the long, waterless drive from
the last water on the Concho River, or were
lost in the mud and waters of Horsehead
Crossing.
The coming of the railroad, automobile,
bridges and highways have left the feared old
crossing alone with the ghosts of men and ani-
mals that left their bones there to bleach in
the Texas sun.
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