Trammel's Trace

The name on the road belongs to Nicholas Trammell, born on the Duck River in Tennessee in 1780, the Handbook of Texas says. By 1808 he was an interpreter in Arkansas, and by 1811 he had opened a trail as far as the Ouachita River. He built shanties and corrals along the road for the horse trade, was accused of slave and horse theft, and is called a slave smuggler in the entry. In October 1826 he fled an eviction on the Trinity, an episode that helped spark the Fredonian Rebellion. He died in Gonzales County in 1856.

What the plaque says

Trammel's Trace Entered Cass County at Epperson's Ferry. Continued south and west in an arc, passing through Chalybeate Springs (Hughes Springs). This 1813 pioneer trail originated in St. Louis and linked the "Southwest Trail" with the King's Highway to Mexico. It was laid out by Nicholas Trammel (1780-1852). (1967)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Daingerfield State Park — 3.6 mi
  A pine-and-hardwood park built in 1935-39 by a white and a Black Civilian Conservation Corps company, with a dammed lake, Bass Lodge and a 2.4-mile loop trail around the water.
• Jefferson Historical Museum — 24 mi
  A four-floor museum in Jefferson's 1888-90 federal post office and courthouse, with rooms for African-American history, Jewish heritage, the Caddo and Diamond Bessie, bought by the historical society in 1965 for $8,100.
• Excelsior House Hotel — 24 mi
  A brick-and-timber hotel at 211 West Austin that began as a river captain's boarding house in 1858 and was revived by a garden club in 1959, and still takes guests with rosewood furniture.
• Atlanta State Park — 27 mi
  A shoreline park on Wright Patman Lake, leased from the Army in 1954, where Caddo ancestors farmed the Sulphur River and wagon traces such as the Bobo Ferry trace still cross the woods.

More markers nearby

• Chalybeate Springs — steps away
• Town of Hughes Springs — 1.2 mi
• Harris Chapel Cemetery — 4.5 mi
• Morris County — 5.9 mi