San Antonio-California Trail
Inscription
(Three miles south) One of Texas' first cross-country wagon trails. The San Antonio-El Paso section of this route was surveyed in 1848 by a party under the intrepid Indian fighter Jack Hays. Used first by emigrants and gold-seekers, it became part of the San Antonio-San Diego mail line (1857), one of America's pioneer mail services.
Passengers on the line paid $200 (one-way) to share a swaying Concord coach with 600 pounds of mail and braved bandits, dust, floods, and Indians to spend 27 days traveling 1,500 miles. Service ended in 1861 at the outbreak of the Civil War.
Location
Sources
More markers in Culberson
Clark Hotel
Van Horn, TX
First permanent structure in Van Horn.
County Named for Texas Confederate Colonel David B. Culberson
Van Horn, TX
[front side] 1830-1900.
Figure 2 Ranch
Van Horn, TX
The lands which now lie within the boundaries of the Figure 2 Ranch were occupied in the 19th century by nomadic Native American tribes.