DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker tells this one, and I'm just the voice that carries it down the road. About ten miles northwest of where you're sitting right now, there is a place on the Pecos River that has seen more history than most towns ever dream of. They called it Horsehead Crossing.
And before you ask — the marker says it got that name from skulls, animal skulls, pointing toward the crossing. You think about that image a moment. Sun-bleached bones in the desert, arranged by nothing but time and thirst, pointing the way to water.
That right there tells you something about the Pecos. See, the river had deep banks in most places. Steep enough to trap an animal that tried to drink.
It would get down to the water and couldn't climb back out. But at this one ford — this one narrow, particular stretch — the animals could enter, drink, and leave safely. In a land that dry, that specific, that unforgiving, that was not a small thing.
That was everything. In 1849, Captain R. B.
Marcy mapped the ford. He was leading an army escort for parties headed to the California gold rush, and Horsehead Crossing went onto the map as a place worth knowing. Then in the 1850s, a frontier fighter and scout named Henry Skillman started working the crossing regular.
Skillman was the contractor for the first mail route from San Antonio to El Paso, and he knew this country the way you know your own kitchen. But the crossing was about to get a whole lot louder. Starting in 1858, the Butterfield coach came through — carrying mail all the way from St.
Louis to San Francisco. First stage service to span the continent. And Horsehead Crossing was a change station on that line.
Imagine it: out here in this heat, this silence, this emptiness — and then the brass bugle call of a Butterfield coach coming in, horses blowing hard, driver up top with dust on his face, carrying letters from one side of America to the other. That service ran until 1861. Now. 1861 is when things got complicated.
The Civil War came, and suddenly Horsehead Crossing wasn't just a waypoint anymore. It was a strategic piece on a very dangerous board. Wagons rolled through hauling salt — highly valuable salt, scooped right out of the bed of nearby Juan Cordona Lake — to meet the scarcities spreading across Texas.
Salt meant preserved food, survival, the kind of thing people fought over when shortages bit hard enough. And they were watching each other out here. Federal forces, operating out of El Paso, feared an invasion coming by way of Horsehead.
Confederates feared the same from the other direction. Spying and counterspying moved along the Overland Trail like a slow river under a still surface. The Confederates, the marker says, several times threw back armies that sought to enter the state — armies that meant to deploy along the old Overland Trail and conquer north and west Texas.
The crossing that had guided thirsty animals to safe water was now the hinge point of a military campaign. From 1861 to 1865, that ford held its breath. The war ended.
The crossing exhaled. And then came the cattle. In 1866, the Goodnight-Loving Trail was mapped, and Horsehead Crossing became an important ford for cattle moving up that route.
One more chapter in a place that had already collected more chapters than most spots on this earth. Ten miles northwest. Skulls in the sand, a river with steep banks and one good way across, and a piece of ground that just kept showing up at the center of things every time history needed a place to happen.
What the marker says
(about 10 mi. NW) One of the most important sites in the old west. Named for skulls pointing toward crossing. Only ford for many miles where animals could enter, drink and leave Pecos River safely. Elsewhere deep banks would trap them. Ford mapped 1849 by Capt. R. B. Marcy, head of army escort for parties on way to California gold rush. Used in 1850's by frontier fighter and scout Henry Skillman, contractor for first mail route from San Antonio to El Paso. As change station, echoed with brass bugle call of Butterfield coach carrying mail from St. Louis to San Francisco, in first stage service to span continent, 1858-1861. During the Civil War, 1861-1865, used by wagons hauling highly valuable salt scooped from bed of nearby Juan Cordona Lake, to meet Texas scarcities. Also scene of spying and counterspying of Federal and Confederates watching Overland Trail. Federal, operating out of El Paso, feared invasion by way of Horsehead. Confederates several times threw back armies that sought to enter the state in order to deploy along the old Overland Trail and conquer north and west Texas. Later this became important crossing for cattle on Goodnight-Loving trail, mapped in 1866. (1965)