Texas Almanac, 1945-1946 Page: 306
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306 TEXAS ALMANAC.-1945-1946.
boro. Fort Richardson Fort Griffin and Fort
Concho. thence to Fort Stockton. instead of
the former route up the Pecos to Delaware
River, etc. (see 4). where it united with the
stage line from San Antonio. continuing over
the same route to El Paso
38. Southern Overland Mail (see 4).
39 Spanish Road. The Great (see 20).
40. Spanish Trace. doubtless a connecting
link with the Nacogdoches region It is iden-
tified in western Red Rix er County, tracing
from the mouth of Upper Pine Creek south-
ward to cross the Sulphur lust below the
forks at the Delta-Lamar-Red River corner.
Its Red Riper terminus was near the Fort
Towson landing, and a few miles above the
mouth of the Klamichr, terminus of the Cen-
tral National Road (8)
41. Taylor's Route (for General Taylor) to
the Rio Grande from Corpus Christi., struck
the Matamoros Road (26) in the xi cinityv of
Santa Gertrudis (Kingsxille). following it
across the Wild Horse Prairie (the sand dune
region) to the Rio Grande. and fighting the
battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma
on the last twenty miles of the route
42. Trammel Trace, from Nicholas Tram-
mel. who was running stolen horses from
Arkansas to Texas as early as 1813 Began
at mouth of Cadron Creek on the Arkansas
River (near present Comxav) via Hot Springs
to Fulton on Red Rig er entering Bowie
County, Texas. on a southwest course to a
former Indian xillage near present Hughes
Springs; thence bearing southeast to cross
the Cvpress about two miles aboxe Jefferson.
curving eastward to near Scotts%ille and
southwest again to the Rocky Crossing on
the Sabine. where it later became the Panola-
Rusk County line, and entering Nacogdoches
from near Mount Enterprise. (See 22)
43. Jones & Plummer Trail, from a freight-
ing partnership engaged in hauling buffalo
hides to Dodge City When Fort Elliott was
established (1876) it became the supply route
for that post and Mobeetie in the northwest
corner of present Wheeler County Over it
came white pine lumber from northern for-
ests to build officers' quarters, some of which
were sold and rebuilt at the new railroad
town of Story (Lela post office) in 1903.
The Jones & Plummer trail was in turn a
buffalo hide route, a military and commercial
supply route for Lee & Reynolds freight
contractors, and finally a cattle trail. (See
Cattle Trails, p. 228 )
Traversing "No Man's Land" via the main
street of Beaver City. Okla , the Fort Elliott
route crossed the Canadian at the present
city of that name When Tascosa became a
supply point for the western Panhandle, a
branch took off from near the Texas line
south of Beaver City along the old trail from
Adobe Walls, bv-passing that point and keep-
ing to the high plains through Hutchinson
and Moore Counties to Tascosa.
El Llano Estacado.
That there were practical routes across the
Llano Estacado was unknown to the Anglo-
Americans until the Indian campaigns of the
1870's, though the Comancheros and Ciboleros
of Taos and Santa Fe had been crossing the
plains by various routes for generations
Traversed only by cavalcades on hunting and
trading expeditions, these routes were courses
rather than trails, and left no discernible
traces.
Albert Pike returned from Santa Fe via
the Yellow House river route (circa 1834-6)
but the Texas Santa Fe expedition, com-
pletely ignorant of these cross-plains courses,
met disaster. The Blackwater draw from the
present site of Portales, N M , via Bailey
and Lamb Counties, Texas, is the source of
the Double Mountain fork of the Brazos,
which joins Yellow House at Lubbock. Run-
ning Water draw, source of Blanco (or White
River) fork of the Brazos. crossing Castro
and Hale Counties, and Tierra Blanca (White
Earth) Creek which crosses Deaf Smith and
Randall Counties, had pools or rivulets of
living water in all but the driest seasons.
The numerous wet-weather lakes of the
Plains and some larger, more nearly perma-
nent ones, such as McKenzie and CedarLakes in Gaines County, Tahoka Lake in
Lynn County, were well known to the In-
dians and New Mexicans, and doubtless there
were few periods when the Plains could not
be crossed safely by those who were accus-
otmed to traveling by an intuitive sense of
direction rather than by maps and compass.
General MacKenzie's numerous Indian ex-
peditiuns eventually found all these ancient
ondian courses, doubtless by the help of his
Indian scouts and guides. His forces traversed
the Plains from Fort Sumner eastward, from
Fort Concho northward, and from Fort Grif-
fin northwestward, and if his trails were
marked on the map, the Plains would not be
the blank void that it appears in the accom-
panying sketch map.
Levee Districts
Editor's Note -This article and the following
article on p 307 are supplementary to the chapter
on"Water Resources of Texas." See pp. 165-
174 )
There are eighty-eight levee districts in
Texas, most of which are on the Trinity and
Sulphur Ri ers. Entire area reclaimed totals
483,859 acres. There has been an investment
of $17,000,000 to $20,000,000, and the report of
the State Auditor for the fiscal year ended
Aug. 31, 1943, showed an aggregate outstand-
ing bonded debt of $10,644,629.
Many of the levee districts fell into finan-
cial difficulties, especially during the depres-
sion years of low agricultural prices. Failure
of many of the levee projects was due in part
also to lack of co-ordinated water control
in the river basins, consisting of soil conser-
vation and water storage in the land, and im-
pounding of floodwaters Such programs are
now either actively under way or tentative
for the postwar period in most river basins.
There has been material improvement in the
financial condition and future prospects of
levee districts during the last few years.
First Levee District Statute.
The first distinctive levee district statute
was enacted in 1909. The State Levee and
Drainage Board was created at that time and
the duties of the Levee and Drainage Engi-
neer defined. The most important of these
duties was to provide accurate topographic
maps of the area to be reclaimed and hy-
draulic data for the district authorities.
Th 19e Levee and Drainage Board was abol-
ished in 1913 and the office of State Recla-
mation Engineer created. In 1915 the law
was amended to require t the filing of levee
district plans in the office of the State Rec-
lamation Engineer for his approval.
In 1939 the Forty-Sixth Legislature abol-
ished the office of State Reclamation Engi-
neer vesting the functions of that office in
the commissioner of the General Land Office,
and transferring all the records and property
to the General Land Office.
The levee districts today are in better con-
dition than they have been in many years.
This is partly due to the demand for farm
products caused by the war. Several districts
made necessary repairs through co-operation
with the Public Works Administration, Re-
construction Finance Corporation and the
U S. Engineers; and some of them refinanced
their projects through the Reconstruction Fi-
nance Corporation, subject to improvements
made according to supplemental plans ap-
proved by this department.
In order to control more effectively the
floodwaters, the districts are formulating a
program of future co-operation in maintaining
the levees and floodways, and patrolling the
levees in times of flood. Profiles of flood-
ways and the adjoining reclaimed areas dis-
close that the floodways are built up by silt
deposited because of the vegetation. This
condition may be remedied by clearing the
floodways of all underbrush and small trees.
and removing all branches from the large
trees below the high-water mark.
Large areas of fertile bottom lands are yet
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Texas Almanac, 1945-1946, book, 1945; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117166/m1/308/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.