northeastern edge of Mexico
were widely scattered, and the
settlements between and
beyond them were, therefore,
insufficiently protected. Like a
magnet over iron filings, their
vulnerability and rich pickings
annually enticed Comanche
raiding parties across the West
Texas desert during the sum-
mer and early fall. The raids,
often occurring by the light of
the full moon, inspired the term
Comanche Moon – a time of
sleepless
fear
for
the
Comanches’ targets.
By this time Comanches
were also lured by the goodies
and skills that European-based
cultures offered. The People
were now well-seasoned traders
as well as warriors. They raided
and traded not only for horses,
cattle and mules, but also
human captives, who could be
traded as slaves for additional
loot. They also took lead from
mines for ammunition, silver for
decorating horses, rifles for war-
fare and even Mexican black-
smiths who could turn shoddy,
broken firearms and pilfered
metals into tools. Among the
artifacts that local archeologist
Richard Walter has seen are
arrowheads stamped from a
flattened gun barrel and from
stolen silverware.
Walter says that the raids
were so profitable that some
Comanches could actually hire
Navajos to make trappings for
their horses. For such a
resourceful and practical peo-
ple the Comanches were curi-
ously fond of decorations and
would trade cattle and horses
for what Walter calls “pretty
stuff,” such as cheap carnival
jewelry with which they could
ornament themselves and their
horses. Comanche embellish-
ments included not only bright
and shiny trade objects but also
scalps, animal skins and horns,
cavalry jackets, bits of mirror
on their shields and strips of
fabric trailing from horses’
manes and tails and warriors’
braids, all of it fluttering in the
desert wind.
Perhaps intentionally, the
incongruous, and often outra-
geous, combinations of adorn-
ments were perplexing and ter-
rifying to the so-called civilized.
Whatever the purpose, whether
it was to indicate status or
inspire fear, ornamentation was
important to the Comanches,
who spent so much time in the
acquisition and application
thereof that Walter refers to
them as the “low riders” of the
Indian world.
There is no doubt, however,
about the purpose of the
Comanche Trail. David Keller,
an archeologist with the Center
for Big Bend Studies, calls it the
Comanches’ “interstate” for
reaching Mexico and driving
their loot back northward. The
sheer numbers – hundreds and
thousands – of captured beasts
and humans pushed back
through West Texas toward
Comanche territory on the
Great Plains etched the various
branches of the trail into the
desert floor. It is a system rather
than a single thread. From
Horsehead Crossing on the
Pecos River near present day
Girvin, the trail leads south-
ward to Comanche Springs in
what is now Fort Stockton,
before subdividing into the
veins that cross the Big Bend
and the capillaries beyond the
Rio Grande.
Although the system is dot-
ted with watering holes along
the way (it included a stop at
the springs just south of
Marathon at what is now
known as Post Park), many of
the captives and livestock did
not survive the brutal southern-
most portions. The trail, over a
mile wide in some segments,
was littered with their bleached
bones. Witnesses who reported
seeing the extraordinary con-
voys of
livestock and
Comanche raiders in their
dusty procession northward
near modern Fort Stockton
could not have imagined the
magnitude of the devastation
left behind in Mexico. For
although Comanches were
known to be kind to certain
captives (so much so that many,
including the famous Cynthia
Ann Parker, chose to remain
with them), the raids were ruth-
less, cutting swaths of blood and
destruction across Mexico’s
northeastern provinces.
By the time that most
famous Comanche leader of
all, Quanah Parker, the half-
Comanche son of Cynthia
Ann, made his first raid into
Mexico and back long the trail
in 1868, Fort Stockton had
been built and the adjacent
Comanche Springs were no
longer available to the
Comanches. When they
reached Mexico, the 20-year-
old Quanah and his fellow
raiders found few horses, and
even those were closely guard-
ed. He returned home on foot.
The mission was a disaster. His
future battles would be with the
soldiers and settlers on this side
of the Mexico-Texas border.
The days of the Comanche
Trail were over except in mem-
ory.
But it lives on in one of the
most blood-chilling passages of
American literature. Cormac
McCarthy includes, in his novel
Blood Meridian, an unforgettable
visualization of the Comanche
Trail in use. Terrifyingly paint-
ed and festooned with the gee-
gaws of trade and plunder,
both warriors and their mounts
present a horrific sight. Like
something from a Mad Max
movie, they drive horses, mules
and cattle northward, billowing
dust and terror, “clad in cos-
tumes attic or biblical or
wardrobed out of a fevered
dream with the skins of animals
and silk finery and pieces of
uniforms still tracked with the
blood of previous owners…one
in a stovepipe hat and one with
an umbrella and one in white
stockings and a bloodstained
wedding veil… one in a
pigeontailed coat worn back-
wards…with their braids
spliced up with the hair of
other beasts until they trailed
upon the ground.”
No wonder so few could
sleep under the light of the
Comanche Moon.
220 East Oak
A magical
oasis in the
Chihuahuan
Desert
of Texas
rustic lodging
camping
day use
432.229.4165
Off the
Pinto Canyon Rd
near Ruidosa
chinatihotsprings.com
under new management
Marathon Motel
& RV Park
Private Bath/Cable TV
Full Hookups/30 & 50 amp Pull-thrus
432.386.4241
HWY 90 W • Marathon • www.marathonmotel.com
Cenizo
Third Quarter 2011
19