Mackenzie Trail

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, right where the Mackenzie Trail merges into State Highway 55. Back in 1852, the U.S. Army put up two forts out on the Texas frontier: Fort Clark, about seventy miles to the southwest, and Fort McKavett, ninety miles to the northeast.

And right between them, they needed a way to move men and supplies, so they built a trail to connect the posts. That was the beginning of it. Then came 1867, and the Army established Fort Concho, and the trail didn't stop; it pushed farther north, all the way to what is now San Angelo.

The route kept growing, kept reaching. It was later named for Colonel Ranald S. Mackenzie, who commanded Fort Clark in 1873 and traveled this very trail running his campaigns against hostile Indians.

Now, you don't get a trail named after you for just passing through; Mackenzie moved through this country with a purpose, and the land remembered him for it. About six and a half miles north of where you're sitting right now, there's a place called Mackenzie Lake. That lake wasn't just scenery.

It was life out here: water for the troops, water for the cattle drives pushing up the trail, water for settlers trying to put down roots on a hard frontier, and water for Texas Rangers riding their patrols. One lake doing the work of a whole civilization. Funny how the most important things are often the quietest ones.

A trail connecting two forts turned into something much bigger: a thread stitched through the Texas frontier, carrying soldiers, cattle, settlers, and rangers, all of them drinking from the same lake, all of them following the same worn path through this wide-open country.

What the marker says

(Merged at this point into SH 55) When the U.S. Army built forts Clark (70 mi. SW) and McKavett (90 mi. NE) in 1852, this frontier trail connected the posts. After Fort Concho was established in 1867, the trail was extended farther north, to present San Angelo. It was later named for Col. Ranald S. Mackenzie, the 1873 commander of Fort Clark, who traveled it in his campaigns against hostile Indians. One of its landmarks was Mackenzie Lake (6.5 mi. N), which furnished water for the troops, for cattle drives up the trail, for settlers, and for Texas Rangers on frontier patrols. (1977)