Well known to frontiersmen and used by emigrants for several years preceding, this crossing was an important point on the southern overland mail (Butterfield route) which Linked St. Louis and San Francisco with a semi-weekly mail and stage service 1858-1861.

One of the most important sites in the old west. Named for skulls pointing toward crossing. Only ford for many miles where animals could enter, drink and leave Pecos River safely. Elsewhere deep banks would trap them. Ford mapped 1849 by Capt. R.B. Marcy, head of Army escort for parties on way to California gold rush. Used in 1850's contractor for first mail route from San Antonio to El Paso. As change station, echoed with brass bugle call of Butterfield coach carrying mail from St. Louis to San Francisco, in first stage service to span continent, 1858-1861.

During the Civil War, 1861-1865, used by wagons hauling highly valuable salt scooped from bed of nearby Juan Cordona Lake, to meet Texas scarcities. Also scene of spying and counterspying of Federal and Confederates watching Overland Trail. Federal, operating out of El Paso, feared invasion by way of Horsehead. Confederates several times threw back armies that sought to enter the state in order to deploy along the old Overland Trail and conquer north and west Texas.

Later this became important crossing for cattle on Goodnight-Loving trail, mapped in 1866.

Created 1856. Organized 1857. Named for W.H. and P.C. Jack, brothers and patriots in the Texas Revolution. Butterfield Overland Mail, 1858-1861, had 3 stage stops in county. In 1861, Jack County voted against secession, 76-14. Most men fought in frontier units. Some were Confederates; others joined Federal Army. Fort Richardson was established in 1867. In 1871 near Jacksboro, Kiowas massacred Warren Wagon Train teamsters. General of the Army W.T. Sherman, then at the Fort, sent General Ranald S. MacKenzie, Commander, to arrest the Indians. Chiefs Satanta and Big Tree were convicted in first non-tribal trials of Plains Indians in North Texas. By 1875 MacKenzie's raiders had opened West Texas for settlement. A Corn Club founded in Jacksboro by County Agent Tom Marks on September 8, 1907, was the forerunner of the International 4-H Clubs. Fort Richardson, with 7 original buildings standing, is now a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark. Museum is open the year round. Other attractions include circular high school building and old limestones on square, Jacksboro. Recreation centers about lakes, parks, campgrounds. Economy is based on agriculture, oil, cattle, sheep, and goats.

Site of emigrant trail, the frontier military road, and Fort Phantom Hill, founded in 1851 to guard the military road. County created 1858 from Bexar and Bosque counties. Named for Anson Jones (1798-1858), a veteran of San Jacinto, minister to the U.S., Secretary of State and last President of the Texas Republic. Phantom Hill, in 1858-1861 a Butterfield Overland Mail Station, was in 1861-1865 a Civil War patrol point, trying to curb frontier raids by Indians. The county was recreated in 1876, organized 1881. Anson (at first called Jones City) is county seat.

Completed 1944, Texoma is today the second largest lake in Texas and the eleventh largest reservoir in capacity in the United States. Its main purposes are flood control, power generation, and recreation. Lake Texoma was promoted largely through the efforts of Sam Rayburn (1882-1961), noted Speaker of the House who represented District 4 in Congress for 49 years.

In normal operation, lake shoreline covers 550 miles, with the Red River arm (45 miles) in Texas and the Washita arm (30 miles) in Oklahoma covering 93,080 acres. The waters are impounded by Denison Dam.

When Texoma was created, it caused the relocation of railroads, highways, utilities, and cemeteries. The site of Preston, historically the Red River crossing for the Butterfield Stage, was submerged, as were the sites of Hagerman and part of Cedar Mills, Texas.

In 1966 numerous recreation areas on Texoma drew 8,500,000 tourists, who could also visit Eisenhower State Park at the southeast end of the lake. The park was named in honor of Dwight D. Eisenhower, the thirty-fourth President of the United States.

Texoma is one of more than 200 major inland lakes and reservoirs in Texas which contribute greatly to the economic and industrial growth of the state.

Past this point extended a military road surveyed in 1849 by Colonel J.E. Johnson who was detailed by the U.S. War Department to locate the most feasible route from Red River to El Paso. From 1851 to 1854 it connected two frontier forts, Belknap and Phantom Hill, 73 miles apart. Traveled 1858 to 1861 by stages of the Butterfield Line which connected St. Louis and San Francisco.

Maintained from 1858 to outbreak of the Civil War in 1861 as a stage stop on the Butterfield Overland Main Route, which was the first mail and passenger line to link the east and west coasts of the United States. In 1870s this was a stop for branch of El Paso and San Antonio mail line.

Human activity in this area has been traced to prehistoric eras. Native American tribes once roamed this land with the buffalo, deer, turkey, mountain lion, and black bear. Among the first recorded ventures into the canyon were the Military Road survey and the forty-niner mail route of 1849. The Military Road was used by the Butterfield Stage-Overland Mail route from 1858 to 1861. The canyon was named for the mulberry trees that grew along the largest creek. Cattle ranchers began to use the canyon in the 1870s. The last herds of buffalo passed through Mulberry Canyon in 1878 just before pioneer families began to build communities. In 1879 settlers planted maize, corn, and wheat; the first cotton was planted in 1886. The last black bear lived as a pet on the Brown Ranch in the 1880s. Over half a dozen small communities sprang up in the canyon. Ten churches and ten schools have served the area, which at its peak had a population of 500. The earliest marked grave in White Church Cemetery is dated 1883. Nubia, the only town, had a post office until 1917. The last store closed in 1946. In 1997, descendants of the pioneer settlers still occupied much of Mulberry Canyon.

On transcontinental trail of California Gold Rush. Until 1846 a part of Bexar land district, Republic of Texas. Private tracts were surveyed as early as 1847. German Emigration Company colony (90 miles southeast) had grants here, but in 1840s found Indians blocking settlement. Butterfield Overland Mail managers lived at stands in area, 1858-61. R.F. Tankersley family established a permanent home in 1864 in future Tom Green County. By 1874 there were five settlements here, including Bismarck farm, a colony of 15 German immigrants. The county (12,756 sq. mil., 10-1/2 times as large as state of Rhode Island) was created in 1874 and named for heroic Gen. Green (1814-64), a state official and gallant Texas soldier. After a decade of progress, the original Tom Green County began losing outlying areas. Midland County -- halfway between Fort Worth and El Paso on newly opened Texas and Pacific railway -- was created in 1885. Settlers remote from San Angelo petitioned for new counties in 1887, and the Texas Legislature created Crane, Loving, Upton, Ward and Winkler. Coke and Irion Counties were cut out of Tom Green in 1889. Ector and Sterling were created in 1891. Last diversions -- Glasscock (1893) and Reagan (1903) -- gave Tom Green its present size. It remains influential in the region.

Pioneer Plaza was the center of public activity in early El Paso. A United States military guard was posted here in the late 1870s to defend citizens from Apache Indian attacks, and military bands performed in the plaza.

An irrigation ditch flowed along the south boundary of the plaza and nourished a line of trees which shaded the area. Among the trees was an ash known as the "Newspaper Tree" on which public notices were posted.

Major roads and trails passed through the plaza. El Paso Street led southward to El Paso Del Norte, Mexico, and San Francisco Street led westward from the plaza to connect with trails to California. The Butterfield Overland Stage route crossed the southwest corner of the plaza.

Pioneer Plaza was the site of many parades and public events. United States President William H. Taft and Mexican President Porfirio Diaz each passed through the plaza with their entourages while en route to the Chamber of Commerce building for their historic meeting on October 16, 1909.

Due to its small size, Pioneer Plaza was replaced by San Jacinto Plaza as the center of activity.