DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, not every trail out here in west Texas got its name right away — and the Chihuahua Trail is a fine example of that. It was opened by segments, piece by piece, long before anybody was calling it by that name.
We're talking about a route with roots so deep that part of it, right along the nearby Pecos River, was already being walked in 1590 — when the Spaniard Gaspar Castano de Sosa passed through on an expedition to New Mexico. That's not a typo. Fifteen ninety.
This ground has been carrying travelers for a long, long time. By 1850, the trail had finally been extended all the way to connect the city of Chihuahua with the Texas Gulf Coast, running through San Antonio along the way. And when the California gold rush sent men scrambling for a practical route west, this trail had something the others couldn't always promise — water.
It touched at all the known water holes through this rugged terrain, and out here, friend, that was the whole conversation. Then came the mid-1870s, and the trail hit its heaviest use yet. Freighters were hauling tons — actual tons — of silver and copper out of the state of Chihuahua, bound for shipment to the eastern United States.
Now that's a road doing some serious work. But here's the detail that'll stay with you. One of the landmarks along the trail in this part of western Texas was a place called Escondido.
The name means Hidden — and they weren't being poetic about it. Seven miles southeast of Fort Lancaster, tucked into the side of a rugged canyon, sat a small, deep well. Hard to find.
Easy to die without. It saved the lives of many travelers who managed to locate it in time. But flanking that same water hole, quiet as a held breath, are rock cairns — grave markers for some who didn't quite make it.
They got close enough. Close enough to the water that gave life to so many others. That's the Chihuahua Trail for you — salvation and sorrow, sharing the same canyon wall.
What the marker says
The Chihuahua Trail was opened by segments, but was not called by this name until the 19th century. A small part of the route, along the nearby Pecos River, was followed by the Spaniard Gaspar Castano de Sosa in 1590, during an expedition to New Mexico. By 1850, the trail was finally extended to connect the city of Chihuahua and the Texas Gulf Coast, by way of San Antonio. Gold seekers going to California found it practical because it touched at all known water holes in this rugged terrain. Heaviest use of the trail came during the mid-1870s, when freighters transported tons of silver and copper from the state of Chihuahua for shipment to the eastern U.S. One of the landmarks along the Chihuahua Trail in this part of western Texas was Escondido ("Hidden") water hole, seven miles southeast of Fort Lancaster. A small, deep well in the side of a rugged canyon, this water source was very hard to find, but saved the lives of many travelers. However, it is flanked by rock cairns marking the graves of some who died near the water hole of accidents or disease.