Ep. 46: The Great Comanche War Trail
Wise About Texas
Ken Wise
4.9 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 27 November 2017
⏱️ 25 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Every fall, the most feared cavalry the world has ever known, the Comanche Indians, would leave their home on the great plains and raid deep into Mexico taking horses, and humans, back with them. They followed an ancient trail that came to be known as the Great Comanche war trail. The Comanche were not prosperous until the Spanish introduced the horse which turned around the fortunes of an entire people. The Comanche Indians managed to convince the Spanish to help them defeat the Apache, which then opened up unfettered access to Mexico via the war trail. From the panhandle to the Rio Grande, the raiders followed a well-defined trail almost a mile wide at points. Famous springs and river crossings were used for centuries. Even today, you can drive the same trail used by traders, Indians, stagecoaches and travelers. The Great Comanche War Trail.
Your host standing on a remnant of the great Comanche war trail near Persimmon Gap.
The low spot is a remnant of the great Comanche war trail near Persimmon Gap.
Spot along the great Comanche war trail
View along the great Comanche war trail.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Howdy and welcome to Wise about Texas, the Texas History Podcast. |
| 0:13.1 | I'm your host Ken Wise, and I want to thank you |
| 0:15.0 | for loving Texas History and tuning into this episode. |
| 0:18.6 | I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. |
| 0:20.5 | This episode is being released in 2017 on the Monday following Thanksgiving. |
| 0:26.0 | It's fall in Texas and that means football, hunting season, and hopefully a cold front every now and then. |
| 0:32.0 | Football is a little bit of a touchy subject right now. hopefully a cold front every now and then. |
| 0:32.6 | Football is a little bit of a touchy subject right now. |
| 0:36.3 | Long time listeners of this show, |
| 0:37.6 | know I attended Texas A&M University, |
| 0:39.5 | so we're in a little bit of turmoil. |
| 0:42.1 | But nevertheless, football season is definitely a religious |
| 0:46.0 | experience in Texas and I hope your favorite team is doing very well. |
| 0:52.0 | Since the last episode I had a bit of a big event here at Wies about Texas |
| 0:56.0 | World Headquarters. I turned 50 years old. Had a lot of fun celebrating with |
| 1:00.4 | family and friends and enjoying all the trappings that come with 50, you know, |
| 1:05.9 | sore knees, a slower golf swing, but I certainly am glad I've made it this far and hopefully |
| 1:11.3 | have a few more good years to talk about some Texas history. |
| 1:16.2 | One of the trips I took since the last episode was a return trip to a ranch in Big Ben that belongs to some friends of mine and we went out there for a dove hunt but a cold front had blown in the day before and when I'm cold I mean it was 34 degrees in the morning and the dove went out with the |
| 1:35.6 | coal front so we did a lot of riding around the ranch a lot of sitting by the |
| 1:40.4 | fire and eating and drinking in the beautiful big bend area which everyone |
| 1:45.4 | concerned believed resulted in a hugely successful trip even though not a shot was |
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