Site of Early Cattle Trail

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about this place. Now, the marker doesn't give you a whole lot of words, but sometimes the shortest stories carry the longest shadows, and this one's worth savoring. This stretch of ground you're passing through, right here in Hill County, sits on the path of an early cattle trail.

And not just any cattle trail. This one was often called the Chisholm Trail, because it connected with that famous route lying to the north. Whether that name fully fits or not, the drovers who rode it didn't much care what you called it.

They had cattle to move. The trail entered Hill County at Kimball Crossing, about a mile and three tenths to the southwest of where that marker stands. That crossing was the threshold, the moment the whole dusty procession rolled into this county and into history.

From there, the drovers pushed on to Towash and to Fort Graham, places where a man could rest and where horses could be reshod, their iron reset for the miles still ahead. And then came the ford. The Nolan River.

Cross that, and you were out of Hill County and into Johnson County, one more county behind you, one more stretch of Texas swallowed up under hoof and boot. There's something almost quiet about it now, but stand still a moment and you can almost hear it. The creak of leather, the clank of a horseshoe being nailed down tight at Fort Graham, the sound of the Nolan River parting around a thousand hooves.

That trail knew where it was going. It connected to something famous. And it came right through here.

What the marker says

Often called Chisholm Trail, since it connected with that famous route lying to the north. At Kimball Crossing (1.3 mi. SW) this trail entered Hill County. Drovers rested and reshod horses at Towash and Fort Graham, and then forded the Nolan River into Johnson County. (1967)