DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, before there was a Preston Road, before there was a Shawnee Trail, before cattle by the thousands swam a river in Texas, there was an act of Congress — the Congress of the Republic of Texas, mind you — passed in 1838. And what that act authorized, two years later in 1840, was Colonel W.
G. Cooke and the Texas First Infantry Regiment heading out to lay a military road. Not a suggestion of a road.
Not a deer path with ambition. A proper military road, running from Austin north through what would become Dallas, all the way to the Holland Coffee Trading Post on the Red River — the same stretch of river that Lake Texoma would one day swallow up. Now, Holland Coffee, he didn't just run a trading post.
He developed an entire town near it, called Preston. And the route that Colonel Cooke had carved out? It picked up the name Preston Road, running between the Red River and Dallas.
The name fit. Then the immigrants came. From Missouri, from Arkansas, down through Indian Territory — that's Oklahoma today — and into Texas along Preston Road.
And here's a number worth sitting with: in just one six-week stretch in 1845, roughly one thousand wagons crossed that river into Texas. One thousand. Six weeks.
The road was earning its keep. But wagons were only the beginning of the story Preston Road had to tell. From the mid-1850s, that same route marked the path for Texas' first cattle drive.
The trail eventually picked up another name — the Shawnee Trail — and the marker says it was probably named for a Native American village called Shawneetown, situated north of what became the city of Denison. Probably. That word does a lot of work in history, and it's worth remembering.
The cattle didn't just amble across the Red River, either. They swam it — at a place called Rock Bluff Crossing, a natural rock formation that worked like a chute right into the water. That very spot later became the site of the city of Sherman's water intake station on Lake Texoma.
The land remembers what it was used for, even when the water rises over it. The Shawnee Trail held its place as the principal route north for Texas cattle all the way through to the Civil War. After that, the herds kept moving, though the great days were winding down.
The last large herds passed through Grayson County in 1871. After that — quiet. But here's the thing about a road that mattered that much, that carried that many boots and hooves and wagon wheels: it doesn't just disappear.
The old route is still visible today at Rocky Point on Lake Texoma and along Hanna Drive. And the overall passage? It's followed by parts of Preston Road in Grayson County, a farm-to-market road, State Highway Route 289, and Preston Road in Dallas.
The cattle are long gone. The wagons are long gone. But the road — the road is still right there under your tires.
What the marker says
In 1840, authorized by an 1838 act of the Congress of the Republic of Texas, Col. W. G. Cooke and the Texas First Infantry Regiment laid out a military road from Austin north through what became Dallas to the Holland Coffee Trading Post on Red River (later covered by Lake Texoma). Coffee developed the town of Preston near the trading post, and Cooke's military route became known as Preston Road between the Red River and Dallas. Immigrants came from Missouri and Arkansas through Indian Territory (Oklahoma) into Texas along Preston Road. In one six-week period in 1845, roughly 1,000 wagons crossed the river into Texas. From the mid-1850s the road marked the route for Texas' first cattle drive. Later known as the Shawnee Trail, it probably was named for a Native American village called Shawneetown north of what became Denison. Cattle swam the Red River at Rock Bluff Crossing, a natural rock formation that served as a chute into the water, later the site of the city of Sherman's water intake station on Lake Texoma. This remained the principal route to the north for Texas cattle until the Civil War. The last large herds moved through Grayson County in 1871. The old route remains visible at Rocky Point on Lake Texoma, and along Hanna Drive. The overall passage is followed by parts of Preston Road in Grayson County, a farm-to-market road and State Highway Route 289, and Preston Road in Dallas. (1998)