Finding Trammel's Trace

Finding the remains of a trail that is hundreds of years old is not an easy task, but that is precisely what Gary L. Pinkerton has sought to do. Trammel’s Trace was a former Caddo trail that was later used by early Anglo immigrants coming into Texas. Gary’s 2016 book, Trammel’s Trace: The First Road to Texas from the North, provides a history of that road and its namesake, Nicholas Trammell. In his years of researching Trammel’s Trace and mapping its likely route, Gary has driven hundreds of miles of back roads, wandered down remains of abandoned logging roads, and followed survey notes from the Original Texas Land Surveys looking for physical evidence of the trail. His follow up work, Finding Trammel’s Trace: A Guide to Roads, Ruts, Trails, and Swales focuses on that process. One of the few remaining swales that can be identified with certainty as part of Trammel’s Trace is located at the Trammel’s Trace crossing of the Sulphur River (near Maud in Northeast Texas) where Mark Epperson operated a Republic of Texas-era ferry. A recent proposal to raise the water level of Wright Patman Lake threatens to flood this archaeologically important site, which was included on the Most Endangered Places List in 2022. In this webinar, Gary reviews the process of finding the historic trail with a focus on the area around Epperson’s Ferry. Presented by Gary Pinkerton on October 16th, 2024