The Comanche Trail
by Bob Miles
You are now traveling the
Comanche Trail, blazed by
Comanche Indians, enroute
from the Western Plains to
Mexico, and traveled later by
emigrants and soldiers. It
extended south from the Horse
Head Crossing on the Pecos by
Comanche Springs (Fort
Stockton) to the Rio Grande.
1936
B
y the middle of the 1800s,
trails made by Comanche,
Kiowa and Apache war-
riors raiding into Mexico were
well-worn. Thousands of war-
riors had made the journey over
many decades, often driving
huge herds of captured horses,
mules, other livestock and cap-
tive women and children back to
their home villages on the south-
ern Great Plains or, in the case of
the Mescalero Apache, to rugged
mountain rancherías.
While the exact route of the
Great Comanche War Trail is
uncertain for much of its length,
some locations along the route
are agreed upon, including Big
Spring, Horsehead Crossing on
the Pecos River (said to have
been named for the abundance
of horse skeletons left by the
Comanche), Comanche Springs,
Persimmon Gap and Lajitas.
The route varied, depending on
the availability of water, forage
and other conditions.
By the time U.S. explorers
reached Trans-Pecos Texas in
Map: Fort Davis Histor ical Society
the mid-1800s, the trails were
worn deep into the soil. In 1849,
Army engineer Lt. William H.C.
Whiting led a party to find a
practical road from San Antonio
to El Paso. He encountered the
Comanche
Trail
near
Horsehead Crossing and offered
this description: “Close together,
twenty-five deep, much worn
and much used trails made a
great road, which told us that this
was a highway by which each
year the Comanche of the North
desolate
Durango
and
Chihuahua."
The Comanche were new-
comers to the Southwest, not
appearing in Spanish records
until 1706. They were originally
part of the Shoshone tribe in the
area of present Wyoming. Much
shifting of tribal territories was
taking place, as eastern tribes
were pushed westward by the
expanding United States. When
Spanish horses were acquired by
the tribes of the Great Plains, a
new way of life opened up to
them, and the Comanche moved
south to be closer to the source of
the horse. Their wealth was
! "#$%% $ &'$()*)+", - .+/
measured in horses, and a war-
rior’s ability to acquire horses by
raiding advanced his status.
By the 1770s, the Comanche
had begun raiding into Mexico,
and by the mid-1800s the raids
had virtually depopulated large
areas of northern Mexico. One
traveler passing from Mexico
City to Santa Fe in 1846 said, “I
traversed a country completely
deserted on this account (Indian
raids), passing through ruined
villages untrodden for years by
the foot of man.” He also report-
ed, that from the fall of 1845
until September 1846, on the
northern frontier of Mexico,
“upwards of ten thousand head
of horses and mules have already
been carried off, and scarcely has
a hacienda or rancho on the
frontier been unvisited and
everywhere the people have been
killed or captured.”
In the fall of the year, during
the full moon of September,
when the summer rains had
replenished the water holes and
grass, the Comanche descended
on Mexico. The full moon
became known as the
“Comanche” or “Mexico
Moon.” Raiding parties might
be composed of a few warriors
or hundreds with entire families.
From established base camps,
the raiders fanned out, striking
villages and haciendas as far into
the interior of Mexico as
Guadalajara and Quéretaro.
Easily bypassing the scattered
military establishments, they fell
upon the poorly defended inhab-
itants, helping themselves to
horses and mules to replenish
their herds. Captive women and
children would serve as slaves, be
traded or occasionally ran-
somed. Some captives became
wives or warriors and became
part of the tribe.
The Comanche power was
broken in 1874 by the U.S.
Army, and, even though
Apaches continued to raid for a
few more years, the dust began
to fill the ruts of the Comanche
Trail, leaving few traces today.
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