Comanche Trail

Contemporary records seldom name this trail; J. H. Young's 1857 map of West Texas is one that does. On it the lower trail had two prongs, one crossing the Rio Grande near Boquillas and the other at Presidio, meeting at Comanche Springs. Farther north the route crossed the sand hills to the site of Big Spring, then climbed onto the plains by two branches, one up Yellow House Canyon past present Lubbock and the other by Blanco Canyon and Running Water Draw, both heading for the Pecos near Fort Sumner.

What the plaque says

Comanche Trail You are now traveling the Comanche Trail blazed by Comanche Indians, en route from the western plains to Mexico, and traveled later by emigrants and soldiers. It extended south from the Horse Head Crossing of the Pecos by Comanche Springs (Fort Stockton) to the Rio Grande.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Big Bend National Park — 23 mi
  More than 1,250 square miles of Chihuahuan Desert, the Chisos Mountains and the canyons of the Rio Grande, opened in 1944 as the first national park in Texas.
• Terlingua Ghost Town — 36 mi
  The stone shells of the Chisos Mining Company's quicksilver camp west of Study Butte, where a Chicago owner made a fortune from a mine he seldom came to see.

More markers nearby

• Double Mills — 5.8 mi
• Black Gap Wildlife Management Area — 15 mi
• Terlingua — 35 mi
• Federico Villalba — 35 mi