Giddings' Pecos Station

George H. Giddings, born in Pennsylvania on July 4, 1823, joined his brother in Brenham in 1846 and was named surgeon of a volunteer company despite having no medical training. He clerked for a San Antonio firm, then bought its stores there and in Franklin. In 1855 raids cost him 270 mules and sixty horses. In the Civil War his border militia fought at Palmito Ranch, the war's last battle. In 1891 the Court of Claims disallowed his claims for stage-line losses because he had not witnessed them himself.

What the plaque says

Giddings' Pecos Station In the mid-19th century, stagecoach lines were a primary means of moving people, mail and supplies through the region. The U.S. government contracted with Henry Skillman for the San Antonio-El Paso Stage line in 1851. In this area, the route ran along the historic Chihuahua Trail, also known as the Lower Road, which was designed to carry U.S. mail. The service soon added passenger and freight delivery. Skillman and William "Bigfoot" Wallace were two of the better known drivers. In 1854, George H. Giddings took over the San Antonio to El Paso line and created a series of stage stations in the area. In 1858, he established one near the "S" crossing of the Pecos River. It had two structures built of adobe, limestone and wood. Teamsters used the larger building as a kitchen and dining room and the smaller structure as sleeping quarters. An adobe or high pole corral with a wide gate stood behind the buildings, housing dozens of horses and mules. Water came from a nearby hand-dug well, formerly an existing spring. In early 1862, a driver of the stage to Fort Lancaster reported Indians had destroyed Pecos Station, and the site was abandoned. Lt. Col. Thomas B. Hunt led a detachment past the ruins in 1869, giving the position as the west bank of the Pecos, 2.5 miles from Camp Melbourne. The exact location of the remote post, however, remained in doubt over the years until archeological investigations in the early 21st century. Stone foundations and cultural artifacts from the 1850s, along with evidence of earlier Native American occupation, helped identify this isolated scene of frontier life. (2007)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Alley Oop Park and Iraan Museum — 4.5 mi
  An oil-boom town named for Ira and Ann Yates, where the creator of the caveman comic Alley Oop once worked, and a park of giant cartoon figures beside the town museum.
• Mendoza Trail Museum — 20 mi
  A 1966 museum in a 1925 oil town, named for the Spanish officer who crossed this country in 1683 at the invitation of the Jumano, with a 1915 bungalow beside it.
• Rankin Museum (Yates Hotel) — 21 mi
  The fireproof hotel Ira Yates built beside the Orient railway depot months after oil came in on his ranch in 1926, kept as it was down to the wicker lobby furniture.
• Fort Lancaster State Historic Site — 24 mi
  An 1855 post on Live Oak Creek above the Pecos, on the lower road to El Paso, where the army's camels passed three times and Buffalo Soldiers held off an attack in 1867.

More markers nearby

• Marathon Oil Company Discovery Well — 4.2 mi
• Iraan — 4.9 mi
• Camp Melvin and the Pontoon Crossing of the Pecos River — 6.7 mi
• Rodman-Noel Oil Field — 17 mi