Emigrants' Crossing

The river these travelers forded rises on the western slope of the Santa Fe range in Mora County, New Mexico, and runs more than 900 miles, draining some 44,000 square miles, before it meets the Rio Grande in Amistad Reservoir. In Texas it draws the line between county after county, Reeves and Ward among them. Early travelers found it sixty-five to a hundred feet wide and seven to ten feet deep, with a fast current. Below Red Bluff it now runs mostly on reservoir releases and seepage, yet a heavy thunderstorm can still make it dangerous.

What the plaque says

Emigrants' Crossing One of the few spots where pioneer travelers could cross the Pecos River by fording. At Emigrants' Crossing, the deep, treacherous river flows over exposed rock. It is one of only three fords in a 60-mile segment of the stream, and was the one favored by parties migrating in 1849 from the eastern United States to west coast gold fields. Often called the California Emigrants' Crossing, or the Red River Trail crossing, it was also the one used in 1858 by coaches of Butterfield Overland Mail, which had an adobe station and a high-walled adobe corral there. (1972)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Roy Orbison Museum — 30 mi
  A volunteer-run room in the oil town where Roy Orbison spent his high school years, opened on request, with a guitar he played and his tinted prescription sunglasses.

More markers nearby

• Mrs. Lillie W. Cole — steps away
• Spanish Explorers — steps away
• Reeves County-Pecos, Texas — steps away
• The Pecos Cantaloupe — steps away