Fort Davis

The town grew from a rough settlement called Chihuahua, just southwest of the post, and the fort itself stood on the site of an Indian village that early Anglo-American explorers called Painted Comanche Camp. A stage stand opened nearby when Henry Skillman took the San Antonio-El Paso mail in 1850. E. P. Webster, who rode with Bigfoot Wallace to escort the first coach, stayed on as master of the Limpia Canyon station. After the Ninth Cavalry returned in 1867, Fort Davis became, in one description, the most important town in the Trans-Pecos.

What the plaque says

Fort Davis Established by Lieut. Col. Washington Seawell with six companies of the Eighth U.S. Infantry in October 1854 for protecting travelers on the San Antonio-El Paso Road. Named in honor of the then Secretary of War, Jefferson Davis, it was abandoned by federal troops in April 1861, reoccupied in 1867. Troops from the post helped to bring about the peaceful settlement and development of the region. Fort Davis was deactivated in 1891.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Davis National Historic Site — 0.2 mi
  A frontier post of 1854 to 1891 on the San Antonio-El Paso Road, garrisoned after the Civil War by Black regiments, with its buildings restored to their 1880 look.
• Davis Mountains State Park & Indian Lodge — 2.6 mi
  A 1933 Civilian Conservation Corps park above Fort Davis, with the CCC's Skyline Drive, the white adobe Indian Lodge and a trail down to the old fort.
• Chihuahuan Desert Nature Center and Botanical Gardens — 5.2 mi
  The Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute's grounds south of Fort Davis, with an 18-acre botanical garden, a cactus museum and trails into the desert foothills.
• McDonald Observatory — 9.4 mi
  The University of Texas observatory on Mount Locke, founded with a Paris, Texas banker's fortune, with star parties three nights a week under some of the darkest skies in the country.

More markers nearby

• Hotel Limpia — 0.6 mi
• Old Fort Davis C. S. A. — 0.6 mi
• Confederate President Jefferson Davis — 0.6 mi
• Jeff Davis County — 0.7 mi