DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Captain Randolph B. Marcy's Southern Route Expedition, out in Ector County, Texas. Now, 1849 is a year that had a way of pulling people west whether they were ready or not.
Word of gold in California had spread like a brushfire, and the U.S. government — never one to let a stampede go unsupervised — started appointing army captains to escort the Forty-Niners on their journey as far as Santa Fe, New Mexico. The Secretary of War tapped Captain Randolph B. Marcy for that job.
Escort the hopeful, protect the foolish, and get everybody to Santa Fe in one piece. Marcy didn't ride out alone, and he didn't ride out light. He brought with him the famed Delaware Scout Black Beaver, a man whose reputation on the frontier preceded him like a long shadow at sundown.
He also brought topographical engineer Lieutenant James H. Simpson, whose job it was to do something remarkable — map a wagon road all the way from Fort Smith to Santa Fe. Not just travel it.
Map it. For everyone who'd come after. The detachment left Fort Smith in 1849, and what they opened up was the Fort Smith–Santa Fe road — running across the Texas panhandle, through north central New Mexico, all the way to Santa Fe.
A road cut into the land for future gold seekers and emigrants pushing west. Now here's where the story takes a turn. Once Marcy successfully reached Santa Fe with his party of Forty-Niners, he could have called it done.
Mission accomplished, head home. But Captain Marcy decided to escort a wagon train traveling to El Paso. He took them as far as Doña Ana — sixty miles north of El Paso — before his detachment turned east.
And that decision is where this particular piece of Texas ground enters the tale. Marcy's intent now was to survey and construct a route back to Fort Smith from west Texas. For that, he needed a guide who knew the country the way you know the back of your own hand.
He employed Manuel, a famed Comanche guide, and that choice would prove to be the difference between wandering and arriving. Manuel led the party southward toward the Pecos River, to a place that would come to be known as emigrant crossing — sitting about twenty miles below present-day Pecos. They crossed the Pecos, and then came four days of hard going through the sandy hills of the Monahans.
Four days. If you've ever felt West Texas grit between your teeth on a dry August wind, you have some small idea of what those men were enduring. From there, the party followed an old Comanche trail — a path worn into the earth long before Marcy ever laid eyes on it — between Goldsmith and Odessa, right here in Ector County.
They pressed on northeast, back toward Fort Smith. What Marcy and his men had done — guided by Black Beaver, mapped by Simpson, and navigated in part by Manuel — was forge a shorter, southern route from Fort Smith all the way to Doña Ana. A new road stitched together through the Toyah Basin, the Trans-Pecos Region, and the southern Llano Estacado, linking El Paso to the east by wagon road.
The gold rush made men chase California. But some of the most lasting things they left behind were right here in Texas — roads cut into the dust that long outlived the fortune-seekers who first walked them.
What the marker says
The California Gold Rush in 1849 prompted the U.S. government to appoint army captains to escort prospective gold seekers to California. Captain Randolph B. Marcy was one of these captains appointed by the Secretary of War to escort and protect the "Forty-Niners" on their journey as far as Santa Fe, New Mexico. Captain Marcy brought with him the famed Delaware Scout Black Beaver and topographical engineer Lieutenant James H. Simpson to map a wagon road from Ft. Smith to Santa Fe. This route was mapped for future gold seekers and other emigrants moving west. Captain Marcy and his detachment left Ft. Smith in 1849. Their expedition opened the Fort Smith-Santa Fe road which ran across the Texas panhandle, through north central New Mexico and ended in Santa fee. Once successfully reaching Santa Fe with the party of "Forty-Niners," Captain Marcy decided to escort a wagon train traveling to El Paso. He escorted the wagon train to Dona Ana, sixty miles north of El Paso. His detachment then turned east with intent to survey and construct a route back to Ft. Smith from west Texas. Marcy employed Manuel, a famed Comanche guide. This new route linked El Paso with a wagon road via the Toyah Basin, the Trans-Pecos Region and the southern Llano Estacado. Manuel guided the party southward toward the Pecos River to what became known as emigrant crossing, about 20 miles below present day Pecos. After crossing the Pecos Captain Marcy's party spent four days crossing the "sandy hills of the Monahan's" and followed an old Comanche trail between Goldsmith and Odessa in Ector County, continuing northeast to Ft. Smith. The Marcy expedition forged a shorter, southern route from Ft. Smith to Dona Ana.