Wild Rose Pass

The pass runs two miles at elevations of 4,320 to 4,546 feet, some 700 to 900 feet below the peaks on either side. Lt. William H. C. Whiting, who came through in March 1849, supposedly named it for the Demaree rose growing at its springs and seeps. Legend says Bigfoot Wallace, driving the mail in the 1850s, shot a buck on a cliff here that slid down to stop in front of his coach. Another story holds that Mescaleros who took a mail coach in 1859 were caught while poring over the captured newspapers' pictures.

What the plaque says

Wild Rose Pass In early days the Indian trail through these mountains followed the gorge below known as Limpia Canyon. To avoid the floods travelers over the San Antonio - El Paso Road, emigrants, U.S. troops and supply trains, and the mail chose this higher pass famed for its wealth of wild roses. Erected by the State of Texas 1956.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Davis National Historic Site — 10 mi
  A frontier post of 1854 to 1891 on the San Antonio-El Paso Road, garrisoned after the Civil War by Black regiments, with its buildings restored to their 1880 look.
• Davis Mountains State Park & Indian Lodge — 12 mi
  A 1933 Civilian Conservation Corps park above Fort Davis, with the CCC's Skyline Drive, the white adobe Indian Lodge and a trail down to the old fort.
• Chihuahuan Desert Nature Center and Botanical Gardens — 13 mi
  The Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute's grounds south of Fort Davis, with an 18-acre botanical garden, a cactus museum and trails into the desert foothills.
• McDonald Observatory — 15 mi
  The University of Texas observatory on Mount Locke, founded with a Paris, Texas banker's fortune, with star parties three nights a week under some of the darkest skies in the country.

More markers nearby

• Fort Davis — 10 mi
• Hotel Limpia — 11 mi
• Old Fort Davis C. S. A. — 11 mi
• Confederate President Jefferson Davis — 11 mi