The Pioneer Coalsons

Dan W. Roberts, one of the captains named here, joined Company D of the Frontier Battalion as a second lieutenant in May 1874, on a commission from his friend Rufe Perry. The company fought raiders, helped civil officers enforce the law and worked with the army on a military road from Fort McKavett to Fort Stockton. Roberts took command in 1875 and married Luvenia Conway that September, bringing her to live in the rangers' camp. He left the service in 1882 for New Mexico and died in Austin in 1935, buried in the State Cemetery.

What the plaque says

The Pioneer Coalsons (Cedar Creek Ranch and graves about 9 miles WNW) Indians attacked goat camp of Nick Coalson on June 1, 1877; son Arthur, 10, was killed; Johnny, 14, wounded. Coalson escaped after 3 hours of hard fighting. One year later he lost his wife Alice, a daughter Etta Elizabeth (twin of Arthur), and infant stepson in another Indian raid. Captains Pat Dolan and Dan Roberts with Texas Ranger units, S.D. Coalson (Nick's son), U.S. Army scout Jim Hill, Jim and John Welch, and Henry and Sam Wells pursued but failed to find the Indians. The victims' graves are near old homesite, on Half-Moon Prairie. Coalson descendants are prominent in Texas history. (1972)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Real County Historical Museum — 16 mi
  A small county museum in Leakey, at the head of the Frio Canyon, with a log-cabin parlor, an 1880s horse-drawn hearse, a wool and mohair shearing machine and 1910s jail cells.
• Garner State Park — 19 mi
  The Frio River park that Uvalde County built with the Civilian Conservation Corps and named for its own vice president, where people have danced on the stone pavilion every summer since the 1940s.
• Devil's Sinkhole State Natural Area — 23 mi
  A 140-foot shaft into a cavern outside Rocksprings, seen only on guided tours from a platform at the rim as some three million bats spiral out on summer evenings.
• Kickapoo Cavern State Park — 26 mi
  A lightly developed former ranch on the Kinney-Edwards line with twenty caves, a Saturday tour into a 1,400-foot cavern and a summer bat flight from Stuart Bat Cave.

More markers nearby

• Site of Nix Mill — steps away
• Dixie Settlement — steps away
• Camp Fawcett — 0.8 mi
• Site of the Mission San Lorenzo de La Santa Cruz — 3.5 mi