Old Military Road

The road's army years match the life of Fort Elliott. The Handbook of Texas says Col. Nelson A. Miles set up an advance supply post in December 1874, that Maj. James Biddle chose a plateau above Sweetwater Creek for a permanent post in 1875, and that it was renamed in 1876 for Maj. Joel H. Elliott, killed at the Washita. Lumber came by wagon from Dodge City, 196 miles north. When the railroad bypassed the fort in 1887 its role faded, and the army closed it in October 1890.

What the plaque says

(1874 - 1890) One of earliest known Texas Panhandle trails. Flint-pierced mastodon bones show prehistoric men trailed this valley before Indians were here. In 1875, U.S. Army came this way to Fort Elliott, at Mobeetie (30 mi. SW). Mail routes and stagecoaches used this trail, 1878-1890. (1969)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Lake Marvin — steps away
  A small 1930s conservation lake on Boggy Creek east of Canadian, named for the Panhandle congressman whose name is on the 1937 law that turned the plains' ruined farms back to grass.
• Gene Howe Wildlife Management Area — 6.5 mi
  Five thousand acres of sand sage and cottonwood bottomland along the Canadian River east of Canadian, bought by the state in 1950 for wildlife research and open to walkers with a permit.
• Canadian River Wagon Bridge — 11 mi
  The longest pin-connected bridge in Texas, 3,255 feet of Parker trusses across the Canadian River at Canadian, built for wagons in 1916 and reopened as a footpath in 2000.
• The Citadelle Art Museum — 12 mi
  A 1910 Baptist church saved from demolition in 1977, made into a family home filled with art, and given to Canadian in 2009 as one of the Panhandle's few art museums.

More markers nearby

• 133 yards east to site of Historic Cottonwood — steps away
• Gene Howe Wildlife Management Area — 6.5 mi
• Site of Lyman's Wagon Train Batttle — 6.8 mi
• Anvil Park Ranch — 7.9 mi