Fort Phantom Road passed through Hamilton
County crossing near Aleman,
Blue Ridge, Little Cowhouse Creekwhere
it empties into the Cowhouse, Lund
Valley, between the Hoover
Knobs and Waring Creek near the Comanche County line.
After Texas became the twenty-eighth state in the United
States a series of forts were established to deal with Indians
and to provide some protection for the pioneers moving west. Forts were
established first at Fort Worth on the Trinity River; Fort
Graham on the Brazos River near Hillsboro; Fort Gates
on the Leon River five miles east of the future Gatesville; Fort
Crogham in what would become Burnet County; Fort Slott
near the future Fredericksburg; Fort Ingle in Uvalde
County; and Fort Duncan at Eagle Pass.
As the frontier continued to push westward, a second
line of forts was built in 1853. Forts in the second line of defense were
built at Fort Belkknap on the Salt Fork of the Brazos;
Fort Phantom Hill on the headwaters of the Clear Fork of the Brazos,
between the future Abilene and the future Lueders; Fort
McKavett on the headspring of the San Saba; and Fort Clark
on the head of Los Moros Creek. Fort Phantom Road was the supply
route from Fort Gates to Fort Phantom. Supplies were
transported in wagons, each being drawn by six oxen.
As a child I was not impressed with the tracks
remaining from this road as they crossed my grandmother’s Blue
Ridge farm on which
we lived. These tracks looked like most other wagon tracks I had seen and
I did not understand their significance.
