DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now pull over a minute, because this stretch of the Red River has got a story that doesn't need any embellishing — and I'll tell you why in just a second. Doan's Crossing.
Right here on the Red River. Between 1876 and 1895, this was the place where the Western Texas-Kansas Trail met the water, and what crossed it was nothing short of staggering. Six million cattle and horses.
Six million. Driven north by the men who worked the Western cattle trade, through dust and heat and whatever the Red River had to say about it on any given day. That's not a number you sit with comfortably — it just rolls over you like a herd coming over a rise.
Now, someone thought it fitting to put a monument here, and when they did, they turned to a man who had a way with words. Will Rogers wrote to the folks dedicating this marker, and here's what he said — and I'm giving you his exact words because they earn their keep: "You don't need much monument if the cause is good. It's only these monuments that are for no reason at all that has to be big.
Good luck to you all anyhow. Yours, Will Rogers." Friend, when Will Rogers writes you a letter, you chisel it in stone. The marker was dedicated to George W.
Saunders, President of the Old Trail Drivers Association, a man honored here for one thing above all others — he kept the trail records straight. In a world where the dust settled fast and memories faded faster, that mattered. Because six million head of livestock don't mean a thing to history if nobody's writing it down.
So here's Doan's Crossing — not a big monument. Just the right one.
What the marker says
By herds on the Western Texas-Kansas Trail, 1876-1895, six million cattle and horses crossed here. "You don't need much monument if the cause is good. It's only these monuments that are for no reason at all that has to be big. Good luck to you all anyhow. Yours, Will Rogers." Dedicated to George W. Saunders, President of the Old Trail Driver's Association, "Who kept the trail records straight."