The Double File Trail

The plaque sends the Delawares to Mexico, but the Handbook of Texas follows them elsewhere. General Terán counted 150 to 200 Delaware (Lenape) families in East Texas in 1828, and Mexico never granted them title to land. A 1836 boundary treaty was never ratified. Delaware scouts rode with Ranger corps in 1837, yet in 1839 President Lamar's expulsion policy and the Cherokee War pushed most immigrant tribes, the Delawares among them, north of the Red River. Houston made a treaty with them at Fort Bird in 1843, and Delaware scouts and interpreters served Texas and later the army.

What the plaque says

The Double File Trail Laid out about 1828 by Delaware Indians, "The Double File Trail" got its name because two horsemen could ride it side by side. The Delawares carved this trace migrating ahead of expanding white settlements. They moved from what they called "the Redlands" in East Texas to Mexico near present Nuevo Laredo. Of the 200 to 250 families reported in East Texas in the 1820s, only about 150 remained after the move. Early sites in Williamson County were settled where this trail crossed waterways. Texas Rangers and the Santa Fe Expedition also traveled the track. (1978)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Williamson County Courthouse — 5.1 mi
  The fifth Williamson County courthouse, a Beaux Arts building by C. H. Page, rises over a Georgetown square of more than 50 Victorian-era buildings.
• Inner Space Cavern — 6.2 mi
  A Georgetown cave found in 1963 when highway engineers drilled test holes, holding Pleistocene fossils and 72-degree rooms that visitors reach by an artificial tunnel.
• The Round Rock — 11 mi
  A table-shaped stone in Brushy Creek gave Round Rock its name in 1854; the Chisholm Trail crossed the creek near it, and Old Town stayed behind when the railroad pulled the town east.
• Mount Bonnell — 25 mi
  Austin's old lookout over the Colorado, named by an 1838 traveler, picnicked on by George and Libbie Custer, and reached by a 1939 flight of about 100 limestone steps.

More markers nearby

• Texan Santa Fe Expedition — steps away
• Mankins Crossing — 0.6 mi
• City of Weir — 2.1 mi
• Community of Jonah — 2.9 mi