Spanish Fort

Anglo settlers who found ruins and Spanish artifacts here assumed the place had been a Spanish fort. By the early 1870s a town called Burlington had grown up nearby as a supply stop for Chisholm Trail drovers, and when that name was refused for a post office, residents suggested Spanish Fort; the office opened in 1877. Herman J. Justin made boots on the square, measuring drovers headed north and finishing them by their return. Justin's wife later counted more than forty murders in the cattle years. When the trails moved west and the railroad bypassed it, the town faded.

What the plaque says

The town of Spanish Fort. Occupies the Site of an Ancient Taovayas Indian Village. Scene of first severe defeat in Texas of Spanish troops by Indians in 1859. Named Fort Teodoro in 1778 by De Mezieres in honor of Teodoro De Croix, Commander of the Interior Provinces of Mexico. Permanent white settlements began in this vicinity after 1850. "Let the grandeur of the pioneer be discerned in the safety he has secured, in the good he has accomplished, in the civilization he has established." (1936)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Stonewall Saloon Museum — 18 mi
  Saint Jo's first permanent building, a stone saloon of 1873 with rooms upstairs for trail drovers, in a town named, the story goes, as a joke on a founder who did not drink.

More markers nearby

• Site of the 1759 Taovayo Victory Over Spain — steps away
• North Nocona Oil Field - Montague County Oil Discovery, 1922 — 5.3 mi
• Illinois Bend School — 8.7 mi
• Red River Station — 12 mi