Historical Marker
Pope's Crossing
Orla, Reeves County · Texas
Erected 1964
Capt. John Pope reached the Pecos on March 8, 1854, surveying for a railroad route to the Pacific, and forded at the river's least threatening point, eighty feet wide and two and a half feet deep, a crossing Spanish travelers and California gold-seekers had used before him. In 1855 he set up Pope's Camp three miles downstream and drilled, without success, for artesian water. After the drilling ended in 1858 the Butterfield stages used his road and camp and forded here. Red Bluff Reservoir covered the crossing in 1936.
What the plaque says
Pope's Crossing Crossing site was 4.9 miles northeast, in Loving County. Now under Red Bluff Lake. (1964)
Where it stands
31.94496, -103.99285 · Directions
Worth the stop nearby
- Carlsbad Caverns National Park — 31 miThe way into the cave has changed four times: a guano miner's bucket, a wooden staircase, a 750-foot elevator, and now a timed ticket and a switchback trail down the natural entrance.
More markers nearby
- Red Bluff Dam — 7.0 mi
- Espejo's Trail — 20 mi
- Loving's Bend — 25 mi
- Carlsbad Caverns National Park — 27 mi