FORT STOCKTON, Texas — If you travel down Highway 67, somewhere out in the desert between McCamey and Fort Stockton you’ll drive past the crossroads at Girvin.
Most people wouldn’t give it a glance, unless they pulled over at McKee’s Bar, the only sign of human habitation out in this desolate country.
But just 12 miles down FM 11, on the banks of the Pecos River, is what could arguably be called the most historic site in Texas.
It was on this very spot that the Goodnight-Loving cattle drive, immortalized in Lonesome Dove, crossed the Pecos River and continued north to Fort Sumner, New Mexico.
Before the cowboys came the emigrant wagon trains headed to California for the Gold Rush, then the Butterfield Stage line, and even earlier, the Comanche war trail and the Spanish Conquistadores.
“This spot has had more history than any other place in Texas, but there’s no buildings, no ruins, just a granite marker they put up during the Texas Centennial back in 1936," said Ernest Woodward with the Pecos County Historical Commission.
And on Oct. 28-29, more than 300 chuckwagons, re-enactors, cowboys and fans of the old west will congregate out in the middle of nowhere for the Third Annual Trails of Time Living History Days.
“We started this a few years ago with just three or four chuckwagons and a handful of re-enactors, and now it has grown to something really special. We feed everyone who shows up and we don’t charge a thing. It’s all volunteers and donations," Woodward said.
“We have four batteries of black powder artillery coming, and they’ll fire cannons on regular intervals. Then we’ve got the school children in Iraan, McCamey and Imperial coming over, and we’ll just have a big old time reliving our history out here," said Woodward.
After two days of excitement, it will return to being one of the most remote historical sites in the Lone Star State. Unlike the Alamo that is in the middle of San Antonio, or the San Jacinto Monument near Houston, there are no major cities near Horsehead Crossing.
The eminent Texas folklorist J. Frank Dobie wrote that no one ever lingered at Horsehead. It was a place people passed through, and that’s the way it remains today.
But if you want to catch a taste of what it must have been like 150 years ago, come on out this Halloween weekend, Oct. 28-29. There may even be a few ghosts present, all from the bodies buried along the banks of the Pecos.
For more information on the Horsehead Crossing Trails of Time event, contact Delane Cagle at the Pecos County Historical Commission at 432-302-1106
Or visit their web site at pecoscountyhistoricalcommission.org.