Camp Resolution of the Texan Santa Fe Expedition

Camp Resolution was in fact four camps, held by the expedition's main body from August 30 to September 18, 1841. The first stood near the junction of Quitaque and Los Lingos creeks in Motley County; the second, used September 3 to 5, was on the south side of Quitaque Creek about where Ranch Road 1065 now crosses it in Floyd County, and two more lay a short way upstream. The party that reached them numbered 321, with twenty-one ox-drawn wagons carrying about $200,000 in merchandise.

What the plaque says

Camp Resolution of the Texan Santa Fe Expedition In an effort to establish a western trade route and expand Texas jurisdiction, Republic of Texas President Mirabeau B. Lamar sent an expedition of merchants, along with a military escort, to Santa Fe in 1841. The group left Brushy Creek north of Austin in June and in August arrived in this vicinity, where they established campsites at the confluence of the Los Lingos and Quitaque creeks (1 mi. E). Traveling across unfamiliar territory, the expedition encountered numerous hardships. Provisions, food, and water were reduced to dangerously low levels, and bands of Kiowa Indians continually harrassed the group, killing some. Facing the impassable ravines of the Caprock, the military commanders decided to divide the group. One party was sent to find New Mexican settlements and seek help, while the second remained. Commander Hugh McLeod drew up a resolution detailing the decision to split the command, and the site became known as Camp Resolution. Finally reaching New Mexico in September, the men were met by Mexican soldiers and were forced to march to Mexico City, where they were imprisoned. Resulting in a U.S.-Mexico diplomatic controversy, the expedition also aided Texas' western land claims. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836 - 1986

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Caprock Canyons State Park & Trailway — 7.7 mi
  Red canyons below the Caprock escarpment where the Texas State Bison Herd, descended from calves Mary Ann Goodnight saved in 1878, has right of way on the park roads.
• Bob Wills Museum — 11 mi
  The old Turkey school, now holding Bob Wills's boots, hats, his father's fiddle and his barbershop tools, in the cotton town that fills each April for Bob Wills Day.
• Motley County Historical Museum — 24 mi
  Matador's museum in the 1928 Traweek Hospital, in the county seat a Scottish-owned ranch created by having its cowboys open one-day businesses to pass a state rule.

More markers nearby

• Site of Original Headquarters of the Quitaque Ranch — 2.5 mi
• Gasoline Cotton Gin — 4.0 mi
• Lake Theo Folsom Bison Kill Site — 8.0 mi
• Bankhead Highway in Turkey — 11 mi