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Home Texas Wichita County Iowa Park Van Dorn Trail
     

Van Dorn Trail

  Texas Historical Markers
FM 1206, about 4 miles from FM 368, Iowa Park, TX, USA

Latitude & Longitude: 33° 52' 18.51687999984", -98° 45' 46.22709999996"
 
    Texas State
Historical Marker
    First important wagon road in Wichita County. Blazed by Brevet Major (later general) Earl Van Dorn in September 1858 with 200 men of the crack 2nd U.S. Cavalry. Just ahead of him went young L. S. Sul Ross (Governor of Texas 1887-91, and president of Texas A & M College, 1891-98) with 100 Indian scouts from the Brazos reservation. Loyal Tonkawa Chief Placido guided Ross and his party. After opening the trail, Van Dorn camped on Otter Creek, in present Oklahoma, for over a year. He routed the Comanches in a battle near Rush Springs (70 miles east), although he and Ross were wounded in the fighting. In 1859 Van Dorn won another decisive victory over the Comanches in Ford County, Kansas; famous persons in this battle were Kirby Smith (later a noted Confederate general) and Fitzhugh Lee (later governor of Virginia). They had recently ridden up the west branch of the trail. The 15-army wagons which brought supplies to the men leveled a trail much used by pioneer settlers who came afterward. The trail ran from Fort Belknap, near Newcastle, Texas, to Camp Radzminski on Otter Creek, north of Frederick, Oklahoma. At Van Dorn Crossing the road branched off to Montague County for supplies. (1969)

This page last updated: 7/15/2008

Van Dorn Trail Historical Marker Location Map, Iowa Park, Texas

 
   
Related Themes: Texas C.S.A., Texas Confederate States of America, Confederacy
 
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