Big Spring State Park on Route of Old Comanche War Trail

The people who used this trail called themselves Nermernuh, "the People." The name Comanche came from a Ute word, Komantcia, often rendered as "enemy," which Spaniards in New Mexico adopted in the early 1700s. A branch of the Northern Shoshones, whose language is nearly identical to theirs, they acquired horses in the late seventeenth century and left the mountains for the plains, moving south toward mustangs, buffalo and trade. They came as many bands rather than one body. The Quahadis, or Antelopes, held the Llano Estacado above Big Spring.

What the plaque says

Big Spring State Park on Route of Old Comanche War Trail For Comanche war parties, about 1750 to 1875, the Big Spring was an oasis. Here paths from northeast, north and northwest twined into the War Trail that led to San Antonio and other Texas points, and down into Mexico. At the Big Spring, parties from far away as the Arkansas Valley could rest their horses. At this point on return trips northward, their weary captives might find water, rest, and possibly food. The Comanches harrassed settlements, robbing and burning stores, mills, farms, ranches; killing men and capturing women and children to be held for ransom, slavery, or adoption into the tribe. The War Trail was well marked, for warriors took on their long expeditions numerous pack and riding horses, hordes of dogs, and their women and children to wait upon the men and assist in the looting. Indians in the Civil War years, 1861-1865, had much freedom to invade Texas. By 1866 they were selling to New Mexico traders thousands of cattle stolen from Texas ranchmen. Most of the Comanches were put on reservations in 1875. Afterward their old trails were used by white settlers and by hunting parties on special leave. In 1881 a hunting party attacked builders on the T. & P. Railroad working near here. Incise on base: Early travel, communication and transportation series Erected by Moody Foundation (1966)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Big Spring State Park — 0.4 mi
  A CCC drive looping up Scenic Mountain, a 200-foot bluff above the town that grew around the only dependable spring within sixty miles of open Llano country.
• Hotel Settles — 1.7 mi
  Big Spring's fifteen-story hotel of 1930, built on ranch oil money, once the tallest building between Fort Worth and El Paso, empty and roosted in by pigeons for decades and now restored.
• Hangar 25 Air Museum — 1.8 mi
  A restored World War II hangar on the old air base above Big Spring, telling the story of the bombardier school of 1942 and of Webb Air Force Base, which trained pilots until 1977.

More markers nearby

• Route of Marcy's Trail — 0.8 mi
• First Christian Church of Big Spring — 1.5 mi
• Big Spring School District — 1.5 mi
• First National Bank in Big Spring — 1.5 mi