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:
“We sank a foot deep in water and mud at every step, and sometimes up to our knees, and the trail was almost obliterated, being no more than that a musquash leaves in similar places, where he parts the floating sedge. In fact, it probably was a musquash trail in some places.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)