Canadian River Trails

The river these trails followed runs about 760 miles from the Sangre de Cristo Mountains near Raton Pass to the Arkansas River in Oklahoma, some 190 of them in Texas. Across most of the Panhandle it flows in a gorge 500 to 800 feet below the plains, and its bed carries so much quicksand that the Handbook of Texas calls it hard to bridge. Juan de Oñate probably called it the Magdalena in 1601. Lt. James W. Abert explored it in 1845, and Sanford Dam has held it back as Lake Meredith since 1965.

What the plaque says

Trade, exploration and hunting trails along the Canadian are older than recorded history-old when used 1541 by Spaniard Coronado hunting golden cities of Cibola. Route in 1840 for Josiah Gregg and 34 Missouri men with goods worth $25,000 headed for trade in Santa Fe. Used by 1849 parties escorted by U.S. Army Captain R. B. Marcy on way to California gold rush. Hunters, cattlemen, settlers used Canadian River trails in 1870s and 80s, as Panhandle was opened to civilization. River's name,"Canadian," came from Spanish for "boxed-in." (1966)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Canadian River Wagon Bridge — 0.4 mi
  The longest pin-connected bridge in Texas, 3,255 feet of Parker trusses across the Canadian River at Canadian, built for wagons in 1916 and reopened as a footpath in 2000.
• River Valley Pioneer Museum — 0.7 mi
  The Hemphill County museum in Canadian, a Santa Fe division town of 1887 on the river breaks that held one of the first commercial rodeos in Texas and voted itself dry in 1903.
• The Citadelle Art Museum — 0.9 mi
  A 1910 Baptist church saved from demolition in 1977, made into a family home filled with art, and given to Canadian in 2009 as one of the Panhandle's few art museums.
• Gene Howe Wildlife Management Area — 4.9 mi
  Five thousand acres of sand sage and cottonwood bottomland along the Canadian River east of Canadian, bought by the state in 1950 for wildlife research and open to walkers with a permit.

More markers nearby

• Hemphill County — steps away
• Robert R. Young — steps away
• Moody Hotel — 0.8 mi
• R. Dick Bussell — 0.8 mi