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HORSEHEAD CROSSING
Horsehead Crossing was the primary crossing on the Pecos for the Comanche Trail from the Llano Estacado south to Mexico. It was probably a prehistoric crossing by earlier Native Americans.
The ford was mapped in 1849 by Randolph B. Marcy, commander of an army escort for parties on their way to California on the San Antonio-El Paso Road. In 1858, the crossing became an important stop on the Butterfield Overland Mail route from St. Louis to San Francisco. In 1866, Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving blazed their famous cattle trail, which came to this point and turned in the direction of upriver.
Decline of cattle drives and completion of two railroads across West Texas in the early 1880s led to the abandonment of the crossing.
The source of the name "Horsehead" has been attributed to horse skulls said to have marked the banks. This may have been due to Comanches, who marked the crossing for easier identification, or the abundance of animals that died at the crossing from drowning, quicksand, or over-drinking while being driven along the Comanche Trail returning from Mexico.
CHARLES GOODNIGHT
Goodnight was born in Macoupin County, Illinois, northeast of St. Louis, the fourth child of Charles Goodnight and the former Charlotte Collier. Goodnight's father's grave is located in a pasture south of Bunker Hill, Illinois. Goodnight was descended from immigrant pioneer Hans Michael Gutknecht, from Mannheim, Germany, making him a distant relative of Harry S Truman.
Goodnight moved to Texas in 1846 with his mother and stepfather, Hiram Daugherty. In 1856, he became a cowboy and served with the local militia, fighting against Comanche raiders. A year later, in 1857, Goodnight joined the Texas Rangers. Goodnight is also known for raising and leading a posse against the Comanche in 1860 that located the Indian camp where Cynthia Ann Parker was living with her husband, Peta Nocona, then guiding Texas Rangers to the camp, leading to Cynthia Ann's recapture. He later made a treaty with her son, Quanah Parker. His father owned a ranch that expanded to 500 acres (200 ha).
At the outbreak of the Civil War, he joined the Confederate States Army. Most of his time was spent as part of a frontier regiment guarding against raids by Indians.
Goodnight described what it took to become a scout, "First, he must be born a natural woodsman and have the faculty of never needing a compass except in snow storms or darkness
OLIVER LOVING
In 1833, he became a farmer in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky. Ten years later, with his brother and his brother-in-law, he moved to the Republic of Texas with their families. In Texas, Loving received 640 acres (2.6 km²) of land in three patents spread through three counties Collin, Dallas, and Parker.
He farmed and, to feed his growing family, hauled freight in his early years as a Texan.
By 1855, he moved with his family to the future Palo Pinto County, Texas, where he ran a country store and ranched on Keechi Creek. By 1857, he owned a thousand acres (4 km²) of land. To market his large herd, Loving drove them out of Texas and in that same year he entrusted his nineteen-year-old son, Joseph, to drive his and his neighbors' cattle to Illinois up the Shawnee Trail. The drive made a profit of $36 head and encouraged Loving to repeat the trek successfully the next year with John Noble Durkee.
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On August 29, 1860, together with John Dawson, he started a herd of 1,500 toward Denver, Colorado to feed miners in the area. They crossed the Red River, traveled to the Arkansas River, and followed it to Pueblo, Colorado, where the cattle wintered. In the spring, Loving sold his cattle for gold and tried to leave for Texas. However, the American Civil War had broken out and the Union authorities prevented him from returning to the South until Kit Carson and others interceded for him. During the war, he was commissioned to provide beef to the Confederate States Army and drive cattle along the Mississippi River. When the war ended, the Confederate government reportedly owed him between $100,000 and $250,000. To make matters worse, the usual cattle markets were inadequate for the available supply