The Southwest Trail was a 19th-century pioneer route that was the primary route for American settlers bound for Texas.
The Southwest Trail was originally an American Indian trace, and it was improved and expanded by European-American pioneers. The trail ran from St. Louis, Missouri, to Fulton, Arkansas on the Red River. At the time of Americans' first settling the Texas area, the Red River was the border between Mexico and the United States.
The trail is commemorated in the Historic Washington State Park near Hope, Arkansas.
Famous quotes containing the word trail:
“Most of us don’t have mothers who blazed a trail for us—at least, not all the way. Coming of age before or during the inception of the women’s movement, whether as working parents or homemakers, whether married or divorced, our mothers faced conundrums—what should they be? how should they act?—that became our uncertainties.”
—Anne Roiphe (20th century)