Comanche Trail

Description

The Comanche Trail connected the tribe's summer hunting grounds across the Great Plains of northern Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Colorado, and Kansas to the Rio Grande, which marked the U.S.-Mexico border. During the 1700s, Spain built a chain of missions and presidios to protect New Spain from Comanche and other Indigenous raids. After Mexico gained independence from Spain in 1821, its ability to defend against such attacks weakened. At the same time, the growing United States created a rising demand for livestock, especially horses and mules.

The Comanche exploited this by launching raids hundreds of miles into Mexico, taking livestock that they then sold in U.S. markets. By 1857, sections of the trail had been named and appeared on maps. The Comanche typically began their autumn raids under a full moon, a phenomenon known in Texas as a Comanche Moon.

The main route followed water sources north from two starting points on the Rio Grande, one at Boquillas and the other at Presidio, with river crossings at both locations. These two legs converged at Comanche Springs near Fort Stockton and Las Moras Springs near Fort Clark. From there, the trail continued north to cross the Pecos River near Horsehead Crossing, then bent northeast toward Odessa and Big Spring, Texas. It then ran east past the Caprock Escarpment and across the Llano Estacado via two separate paths.

One branch went near Lubbock and followed the Double Mountains fork of the Brazos River to the present site of Abernathy, then to Littlefield, and onward through a series of springs to the Pecos River near Fort Sumner. The other branch went from Big Spring to near Plainview, rejoining the first route east of Muleshoe.

Northern branches extended through the Texas Panhandle into Oklahoma, Colorado, and Kansas. Southern branches reached into northern Mexico through Chihuahua, Coahuila, and Durango, all the way to Zacatecas and San Luis Potosi. An eastern fork ran from Big Spring southeast into Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas.

The trail was described as a beaten path up to a mile wide. Much of its southeastern leg now lies within Big Bend National Park, exiting the park through Persimmon Gap in the Santiago Mountains. U.S. Route 385 follows this same path through parts of the park.