Site of Cottonwood Spring

Robert S. Neighbors, the federal Indian agent, found the spring dry in August 1859 as he marched the Brazos and Comanche reserves out of Texas. Caddo, Anadarko, Waco, Tonkawa and Penateka Comanche families had lived on them since a state law of 1854. On May 23, John Baylor led several hundred settlers onto the Brazos Reserve and killed an Indian woman in her garden and an old man; Texas officials had already asked Washington to remove the reserves. The reserve closed July 31, and on September 1 the people reached the Wichita agency.

What the plaque says

Site of Cottonwood Spring 19th century oasis around a lone cottonwood tree and a good spring. Wagon ruts from heavy traffic attracted here are still visible on hill to the southwest. In 1849, Capt. Randolph B. Marcy, U.S. Army camped with his soldiers at this spring as they mapped a gold-seekers' road to California. Capt. Marcy was to return as escort (1851) for Col. W. F. Belknap, en route to establish Fort Belknap (15 miles southwest), and with Maj. Robert S. Neighbors (1854), exploring for Indian reservation sites. Maj. Enoch Steen of the 2nd U.S. Dragoons was here in 1855, platting a route to Fort Riley, Kan. The Leach wagon train camped here in 1857 while opening the Butterfield Overland Mail route, along the Preston Road to Red River. Riding to the north of Red River to fight wild Comanche raiders, two expeditions camped here in 1858: Capt. John S. ("Rip") Ford with Rangers, in April; Maj. Earl Van Dorn with U.S. Cavalry in the fall. Maj. Neighbors in August 1859, escorting Texas Indians to reservations in present Oklahoma, found the spring dry. Water returned, however. Cattlemen used the spring for generations, until in mid-20th century, the water table dropped permanently and the cottonwood died. (1974)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Belknap — 12 mi
  The 1851 northern anchor of the first Texas frontier forts, on the Brazos below Newcastle, a Butterfield stop and the post beside the Brazos Reservation until its people were driven out in 1859.
• Old Post Office Museum and Art Center — 14 mi
  Graham's 1936 Art Moderne post office, with a New Deal mural by Alexandre Hogue inside, now the free museum of Young County in the town where the Texas cattle raisers first organized.
• Royal Theater — 20 mi
  Archer City's movie house, burned in 1965, given a false front for The Last Picture Show and brought back by the town in the 1990s as a working stage on Main Street.

More markers nearby

• Little Salt Creek Indian Fight — 2.9 mi
• Townsite of Old Farmer — 5.2 mi
• Hawkins Chapel — 7.0 mi
• Britt Johnson — 8.2 mi