DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Site of the MacKenzie Trail, out in Scurry County. After the Civil War, the Texas frontier kept pushing westward — and with it came renewed hostilities, as the white man once again invaded Indian lands. The Plains were anything but calm.
And the man Texas turned to for that campaign was Colonel Ranald S. MacKenzie. Now, MacKenzie was a trail-blazer in the most literal sense.
He charted routes from Fort Griffin out to the Plains, and from Fort Concho all the way to Palo Duro Canyon up in the Panhandle. These weren't Sunday rides. His forces ranged from six hundred to eight hundred men, and keeping that many soldiers fed and armed meant hauling tons of supplies — freighted out from Fort Griffin all the way to his main camp on the Brazos River fresh water fork, the river we now call the White River, and then dispersed from there to his troops spread across that rugged country.
A second major trail took shape when MacKenzie moved his entire force from Fort Concho to that Fresh Water Camp. Along the way, they passed a major campsite at MacKenzie Mountain — sitting about twenty miles north of what is now Snyder. That Fresh Water Camp carries a story within itself, and it cuts both ways.
It was one of the first camps made in the 1871 campaign — and in that campaign, MacKenzie was outmaneuvered. The man who did it was Quanah Parker, son of the captive Cynthia Ann Parker and Comanche chief Pete Nocona. Let that land for a moment.
MacKenzie — the colonel blazing trails across West Texas — outmaneuvered, right there at that same camp. But the story doesn't end in 1871. By 1874, MacKenzie came back to that same Fresh Water Camp — this time as the last campsite used after he totally defeated massed Cheyenne, Kiowa, and Quahadi Comanche forces in Palo Duro Canyon.
Same ground. Very different outcome. And here's the detail that ties it all together in a way only Texas can manage: when the original townsite of Snyder was being surveyed in 1881, the abstracts — the legal land documents — twice used the words "The MacKenzie Trail" as a reference point, setting its course right across the Snyder Square.
A military trail so significant it got written into the town's own legal foundation. Colonel MacKenzie rode through, and Snyder has been measuring itself against that trail ever since.
What the marker says
Following the Civil War, the Texas frontier pushed westward, giving rise to renewed hostilities as the white man once again invaded Indian lands. Foremost in the campaign to calm the frontier was Col. Ranald S. MacKenzie, who blazed trails from Ft. Griffin to the Plains and from Ft. Concho to Palo Duro Canyon in the Panhandle. Tons of supplies for MacKenzie's forces--varying from 600 to 800 men--were freighted from Ft. Griffin to his main camp on the Brazos River fresh water fork (now White River), there dispersed to his troops. A second major trail was charted when his entire force moved from Ft. Concho to the Fresh Water Camp, passing a major campsite at MacKenzie Mountain (20 mi. N of Snyder). The Fresh Water Camp was one of the first made in the 1871 campaign in which MacKenzie was outmaneuvered by Quanah Parker (son of captive Cynthia Ann Parker and Comanche chief Pete Nocona). In 1874 it was also the last campsite used after MacKenzie totally defeated massed Cheyenne, Kiowa, and Quahadi Comanche forces in Palo Duro Canyon. Abstracts of the original townsite of Snyder, made in 1881, twice use "The MacKenzie Trail" as reference, setting its course across the Snyder Square. (1968)