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THE OLD MACKENZIE TRAIL The old trail back in the early 70's started out from Fort Griffin in Shackleford County, then the outpost of civilization of western Texas. Until its inception no thoroughfare marked the landscape. The Mackenzie Trail was born of an emergency, in the travailing birth of an empire. Its legend in song and story embodies tales of hardships and danger, tragedy and comedy, courage and heroism, cast in the heroic mold of a frontier people. |
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In September of that year, Mackenzie led four of his
units up on the caprock, leaving the wagon train and balance of the
command to follow. According to L. A. Donnell of Silverton, the trail
there was "about 50 yards wide. From the track it left, they
had to have a number of heavy wagons and muddy soft ground. Some of
the ruts were deep. Even after it grassed over, those tracks remained
until it was plowed years later." The army made this trek during
a period of fall rains. On the afternoon of September 24, they encamped
on the Rock Creek draw, on which headquarters the Indian attack was
made, and from which the counterattack was made on the Indians in
Tule Canyon. Some two miles north of here is the monument that marks
the spot where Mackenzie shot 1450 horses belonging to the Indians,
thus rendering them completely helpless.
The trail starting out from Fort Griffin followed a northwesterly course through Haskell County, crossing Paint Creek between present sites of the |
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