This road was surveyed during the Civil War to haul military supplies to Ft. Bascom, N. Mex. Territory. Then came the buffalo hunters using the trail going to Dodge City hauling hides and buying supplies. Tascosa became a town in the early 1880's. Ox teams and mule teams hauled freight for the cowboy capitol of the Panhandle and ranches that ran into hundreds of dollars annually. Herds from all the Panhandle trailed into Dodge over this route for a number of years. Kit Carson and his N. Mex. Volunteers came down this trail from Ft. Bascom in November 1865 to fight a losing battle with the Indians at the First Adobe Walls Site. Stage coaches ran weekly carrying mail and passengers over the 242 mile route. Post Offices and stage stands out of Tascosa were Little Blue, Cator's Zulu Stockade, Hardesty Ranch in "No Man's Land", Jim Lanes Beaver Creek, Hines Crossing, Cimarron, Hoodoo Brown, Crooked Creek, on into Dodge. Brick for the courthouse at nearby ghost town of Hansford was hauled from Dodge City. Later freight came over this trail from Liberal, Kansas. Ranchers continued to use portions of the old trail until 1920 when the railroad built across the county and Spearman was built. Thus another old historic trail was fenced and plowed under.
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