Historical Marker
Route of Marcy's Trail
Big Spring, Howard County · Texas
Erected 1966
Marcy was born in Greenwich, Massachusetts, on April 9, 1812, entered West Point in 1828 and graduated twenty-ninth in the class of 1832, joining the Fifth Infantry. Apart from two recruiting tours in the East, he spent the next years on the northwest frontier in Michigan and Wisconsin. In the Mexican War he served with Zachary Taylor's army, which fought at Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma. He came back to Texas in 1847, and in 1851, two years after laying out this route, he commanded the escort that helped choose new frontier fort sites.
What the plaque says
Route of Marcy's Trail Mapped by Captain Randolph B. Marcy, in charge of the U.S. Army detail guarding citizens bound for California gold rush. Captain Marcy exploded theory that West Texas was a desert. In making his map, he traveled along a chain of springs and lakes known to Comanche guide Manuel. In October 1849, reached The Big Spring-a site marked by many converging Indian trails. From here he went northeast, toward the Red River. Trail was later used by many emigrants, and was followed by a transcontinental railroad and stagecoach line. (1966)
Where it stands
32.21947, -101.47573 · Directions
Worth the stop nearby
- Big Spring State Park — 1.0 miA 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.
- Hangar 25 Air Museum — 2.1 miA 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.
- Hotel Settles — 2.3 miBig 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.