Finding a Historic Intersection
“My friend and I cut our way through the brush and briars to find the spot!”
Jim Clarke, weed whacker and “rut nut.”
That was the email I received a few days ago from Jim Clarke, the intrepid President of the North Texas History Group, reporting on a venture with Gary Farrar, a member of the group. The “spot” he was talking about was the intersection of the Spanish Trace from Pecan Point with the main branch of Trammel’s Trace near the Sulphur River.
When I asked Jim about the North Texas History Group, he explained that they research locations in Texas history and then visit them to learn more. They have looked at sites related to the death of Philip Nolan, a noted horse smuggler, in 1801. They have visited both the site of Jonesboro and Pecan Point, two important, early Anglo settlements on the Red River. Jim has also visited two sites related to Trammel’s Trace.
Here is what Jim wrote about his experience looking for this intersection of two historic trails.
TRIP REPORT BY JIM CLARKE
On May 26, 2021, the North Texas History Group put another plume in its cap as member Jim Clarke and newly minted member Gary Farrar set out to discover the secrets of Trammel’s Trace in Cass County. For the uninitiated, Trammel’s Trace was the first trail into Spanish Texas from the north.
Beginning about 1813, Nick Trammel, a mustang smuggler, tavern keeper, gambler and apparently a general lowlife, sought a route to transport mustangs he caught in Texas and smuggle them to Arkansas and to other markets in the US. Nick used pre-existing trails created by Native Americans and buffalo, deer, and other animals and exercised great ingenuity to put together a route from Fulton, Arkansas southward through Spanish East Texas to Nacogdoches, which was located on the Camino Real. From Nacogdoches, one could access San Antonio and other locales in Texas.
Thanks to Gary Pinkerton’s intensive research delineating the route used by Trammel, and revealed in Pinkerton’s book, Trammel’s Trace, the First Road to Texas from the North, we were able to locate the route of Spanish Trace (and actually SEE that trace) which courses south from Pecan Point on the Red River. We followed its route about a tenth of a mile where it intersected Trammel’s Trace, about a mile and a half off Texas Highway 77 in Cass County.
Map overlays available on Gary Pinkerton’s website allowed us to locate where the intersection of these two ancient traces is located. This 2021 expedition required one’s commitment to go in many places where no path exists now, to navigate a creek a few times, and go through much heavy growth of thorny bushes, trees, and oceans of poison ivy and poison oak. But I must say, it was well worth the effort! We found the location and whooped it up! Major accomplishment!
Future trips to East Texas are planned to further investigate the thrill of discovering our past as we “chase the Trace” in upcoming expeditions.
THE HISTORY OF PLACE
The experience that Clarke and Farrar had in locating remains of these historic roads certainly qualifies them as “rut nuts.” Their effort, and the focus of their group, also emphasizes the important of place when it comes to our understanding of history. A new book project on Spanish East Texas begins with a reminder of this fact.
Making a physical connection to the place where something historical occurred is beyond merely being an observer. The connection can take us to a far more profound and inexplicable part of our humanness in ways that are difficult to explain. When I put my hand in the river at an ancient trail crossing and run the water and sand through my fingers, it connects me somehow to the same experiences that others have had for centuries. Holding an arrowhead or a pottery sherd that is 9,000 years old makes one wonder who held it before.
Thanks to Jim and Gary for sharing their experience. To share their excitement check out this video!
Jim Clarke, excited by their find.