Chihuahua Road
1849-1883 

It might as well have been called the Lost Road, for history has all but forgotten it. It did have other names and has been known variously as the Government Road, San Antonio-El Paso Road, San Antonio-San Diego Mail Road, the Jack Ass-Mail Road and the Lower Road. Perhaps too many names is its problem. Nothing stuck such as the Butterfield Mail Road or the Santa Fe Trail. It was, however, used every bit as much as both of these trails. It was in fact, the Interstate-10 of its time. It was so until the completion of the Southern Pacific Railroad through Texas. Then, the use of the road declined until the advent of the automobile made its use obsolete.

Unlike the Oreon Trail, the Santa Fe Trail and the Butterfield, the Chihuahua Road between the coast and Ft. Stockton has not been delineated by modern historians to the extent that it can be located exactly. Because almost all of it is on private lands, it probably never will be.

It has been said the road carried as many as 2000 freight wagons a year for over 30 years. It was the road used by the first successful transcontinental mail route in 1857 between San Antonio and San Diego, one year before the Butterfield Mail Route went in to use. It was the road that literally opened up the southwest for settlement. Yet, it is almost unheard of today.

The artifacts you see on display were gathered from a 5 mile stretch of the road on the Hudspeth Ranch located between Beaver Lake (no more) and Howard's Well in Val Verde and Crockett Counties. It is a good sample of what one could expect to be found along a heavily used wagon road that has been untouched by modern man.