DUANE
Duane's take
The marker out here in Hale County tells this one — and I'll give it to you straight from the stone. Now, some trails get named after the towns they connect, or the rivers they ford. Some get named after the men who bled for them.
The Old MacKenzie Trail is the second kind. It starts with a poem — carved right into the record — written by a man called Larry Chittendon. And before I tell you the history, I want to let the verse do what verse does, because Chittendon knew something about this land.
He wrote: Stretching onward toward the sunset, o'er prairie, hill and vale, far beyond the double mountains winds the Old MacKenzie Trail. Double mountains. Think about that a moment.
Out there past the horizon, where the land folds up on itself. And then Chittendon asks the question that hangs over every old trail in Texas — where are now the scouts and soldiers, and those wagon trains of care, those grim men and haggard women? And the echoes whisper — where?
He wasn't being dramatic for the sake of it. He was being honest. Trails like this one carried everything — joy and sorrows, loss and wrecked ambitions, hope, love, hate.
Hunger. Thirst. Anguish.
Lonely prairie graves. That's what that silent trail could relate, if it had a tongue. Where are now that trail's processions, winding westward sure and slow?
Lost. Gone to realms of long ago. Now — here's the man behind the name.
General Ranald Slidell MacKenzie. Fourth United States Cavalry. In 1871, he first crossed this trail in quest of warring bands of Indians.
That was the beginning of it. A soldier pushing west across prairie, hill, and vale, guiding — as Chittendon put it — the restless, roving settlers through the Texas borderland. MacKenzie and his brave and dauntless band.
That's the phrase the poet chose, and it's the phrase that stuck. But Chittendon also knew that soldier's work has an ending. Yes, that soldier's work is over, he wrote, and the dim trail rests at last.
Rests at last. There's a weight to that phrase that you feel differently out here than you would anywhere else. A trail that once carried processions of people winding westward — slow, sure, and relentless — now quiet under the Texas sky.
This marker itself was erected by the state of Texas, with funds appropriated by the federal government, to commemorate one hundred years of Texas independence. Eighteen thirty-six to nineteen thirty-six. A century marker, standing out on the old route, looking back at everything that moved through here.
And Chittendon's last lines — the ones that earn their place — go like this: his name and trail still lead us through the borders of the past. The borders of the past. That's where the Old MacKenzie Trail lives now.
Not on any map you'd use today — but out here, if you're listening, you can still feel it stretching onward toward the sunset.
What the marker says
General Ranald Slidell MacKenzie The Old MacKenzie Trail by "Larry" Chittendon Stretching onward toward the sunset, o'er prairie, hill and vale, far beyond the double mountains winds the Old MacKenzie Trail. Ah, what thoughts and border memories does that dreaming trail suggest, thoughts of travelers gone forever to the twilight realms of rest. Where are now the scouts and soldiers, and those wagon trains of care, those grim men and haggard women and the echoes whisper - where? Ah, what tales of joy and sorrows could that silent trail relate: tales of loss, and wrecked ambitions, tales of hope, of love, and hate: Tales of hunger, thirst, and anguish tales of skulking Indian braves, tales of fear, and death, and danger, tales of lonely prairie graves. Where are now that trail's processions, winding westward sure and slow? Lost: ah, yes, destroyed progress, gone to realms of long ago. Nevermore shall bold MacKenzie, with his brave and dauntless band, guide the restless, roving settlers through the Texas borderland. Yes, that soldier's work is over, and the dim trail rests at last, but his name and trail still lead us through the borders of the past. The MacKenzie Trail first crossed by General Ranald Slidell MacKenzie, 4th United States Cavalry, in 1871 in quest of warring bands of Indians. Erected by the state of Texas with funds appropriated by Federal government to commemorate one hundred years of Texas independence. - 1836 - 1936