The Shawnee Trail

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm going to do it justice. Picture the Republic of Texas, brand new, barely catching its breath, and already the Congress is thinking about roads. In 1838 they appropriated money for construction of a north-south road, one that would crack open the northern Texas territory for trade.

The man they put in charge of making it happen was Colonel William G. Cooke, and Cooke was nobody's fool. He didn't hack a path through the wilderness from scratch.

He found an existing Indian trail: one that already reached from the Red River all the way down to Austin, and he followed it. Now, you don't build a road through wild country without somewhere to resupply, so a fort went up near the Red River, close to the trading post of a man named Holland Coffee. That fort got named for Captain William G.

Preston, a veteran of the Texas Revolution, who was in charge of the troops stationed there in 1840. The stretch of road running south from the Red River down to the Trinity River crossing took on that name too: Preston Road. And here's where the story takes a turn worth savoring.

At that Trinity River crossing, in the year 1841, a man named John Neely Bryan showed up and began the settlement of Dallas. Just a crossing on a road, and look what grew from it. By the 1850s, this road had earned a new name: the Shawnee Trail.

Immigrants were pouring into Texas along it, and cattle were moving the other direction, heading north toward markets. Drives rolling up the trail, one after another, kicking up red dust all the way to the Red River and beyond. But nothing lasts forever on the frontier.

New trails opened to serve the growing Texas cattle industry, and the drives on the Shawnee started thinning out. Then, in the 1870s, the rail lines came through and completed the picture; what the new trails started, the railroads finished. There was a town along the trail called Lebanon, and for a time it mattered.

It served as an assembly point for those cattle drives: the place where herds gathered and drovers steeled themselves for the long push north. Lebanon had a post office that opened in 1860, a sign of a community putting down roots. Then in 1902 the Frisco Railroad came through and went around Lebanon entirely.

Bypassed. Just like that, the reason to stop there was gone. The post office hung on a few more years before it closed in 1905.

The town declined. And the Shawnee Trail, that old Indian path Colonel Cooke dressed up into a republic road, that ribbon of worn earth that helped birth a city and moved a generation of cattle, faded into the ground it had always been made of, leaving nothing behind but the story.

What the marker says

In 1838 the Republic of Texas Congress appropriated money for construction of a north-south road opening the northern Texas area to trade. The project leader, Colonel William G. Cooke, followed an existing Indian trail which reached from the Red River to Austin. A supply fort established on the river near the trading post of Holland Coffee was named for Captain William G. Preston, a veteran of the Texas Revolution, who was in charge of troops stationed there in 1840. The part of the road running south from the Red River to the Trinity River crossing was known as the Preston Road. At the Trinity River crossing in 1841 John Neely Bryan began the settlement of Dallas. By the 1850s the road was known as the Shawnee Trail and was used by immigrants coming to Texas. It also served as a cattle trail, leading to northern markets. The number of cattle drives decreased as new trails were opened to serve the growing Texas cattle industry. Further decline occurred when rail lines were completed to the area in the 1870s. Lebanon served as an assembly point for cattle drives on the Shawnee Trail. Bypassed by the Frisco Railroad in 1902, the town declined. The post office, opened in 1860, closed in 1905. (1980)