Camp Salmon, C.S.A.

John A. Salmon, a Texas Ranger and frontier fighter, enlisted in February 1862 and was mustered in as a captain of the Frontier Regiment at Stephenville that March. His troops lived in the open until huts went up that summer. Their main job was guarding the Ledbetter Salt Works in Shackelford County against raids. Salmon resigned on December 19, 1862. Scouting expeditions left from the camp until March 1864, when it was abandoned. Late that year it served, as Camp McCord, as a gathering point for about 500 men of the Second Frontier District.

What the plaque says

Guarding the frontier during the Civil War, this camp was located 17 mi. west, 6 mi. north. Established as part of a chain of posts a day's horseback ride apart stretching from Red River to Rio Grande. Occupied by Texas Frontier Regiment. Named for Capt. John Salmon, frontier Indian fighter and post commander. Later renamed Camp McCord. Short of food, supplies, ammunition, horses, troubled with Indians, and sharing few of the glories of the war at the cost of many lives, these men served to protect the Texas frontier. TEXAS CIVIL WAR FRONTIER DEFENSE 1861-1865: Texas made an all-out effort for the Confederacy after voting over 3 to 1 for secession. 90,000 troops, noted for mobility and heroic daring, fought on every battlefront. An important source of supply and gateway to foreign trade thru Mexico, Texas was the storehouse of the South. Camp Salmon and other posts on this line were backed by patrols of State Rangers, organized militia, and citizens' posses scouting from nearby "family forts." This was part of a 2000 mile frontier and coastline successfully defended by Texans. (1963)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Old Rip at the Eastland County Courthouse — steps away
  A horned lizard in a glass-topped casket in the 1928 Eastland courthouse, the creature said to have come out alive from the old building's cornerstone after thirty-one years.
• Conrad Hilton Center and Mobley Hotel — 9.5 mi
  The 40-room oil-boom hotel in Cisco that Conrad Hilton bought in 1919 when a bank deal fell through, now a museum of the Hilton start and of Cisco's 1927 Santa Claus bank robbery.

More markers nearby

• Eastland — steps away
• Early Settlers of Eastland County — steps away
• First United Methodist Church of Eastland — steps away
• Mangum Baptist Church — 6.0 mi