The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 54, July 1950 - April, 1951 Page: 269
544 p. : ill., ports., maps. (some col.) ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Steward A. Miller and the Snively Expedition
account with mileage estimates and stream description makes it
possible to identify the line of march as having been across the
present Texas counties of Grayson, Cooke, Montague, Clay, and
into Wichita County to a point about two miles below the mouth
of the main Wichita River, where there is a natural crossing place
which readily fits Miller's description of the crossing, for he
wrote: We crossed the river generally on foot, leading our horses.
Red River at that point has almost no banks; the valley broadens
and the stream spreads out over a wide area. This crossing place
was used by Captain Randolph B. Marcy in 185214 and later
became the main crossing on the road to Fort Sill.15 In times of
normal flow the river is still fordable there.
After four days of north northwestward travel across the pres-
ent state of Oklahoma, the Texans reached an area with the most
picturesque terrain thus far encountered. Miller was eloquent in
his description:
[May] zoth (Wednesday)... Today we drew up by degrees
nearer and nearer to the Witchata Mountain[s]. Though the
country has been romantic for several days, this far excells any.
On the right a rugged mountain, whose keen peaks seem to
pierce the verry skies, while beneath is beautiful level prairie
valley, rich & covered with a thick coat of muskeat grass, upon
which numerous herds of buffalow feed in quietness or run in
wild confusion. Presently as we pursued the valley (which forms
a gap in the mountain) appeared far in front other mountains,
whose distance gave them a deep blue colour, while on the left,
not quite so far removed other mountains hove in sight. The
various mountains presented a thousand different colours of the
richest hue, according to their position to the sun & to us, while
they sent down through the delightful valley on which we were
travelling, numerous rivulets & small branches of [pur]est free-
stone water. ... To heighten all this is a healthy climate. We
Map (see note 2), the recognized authority in 1843, located the iooth meridian
approximately sixty miles east of the true meridian.
14Randolph B. Marcy, Exploration of the Red River of Louisiana (Senate
Executive Documents, 32nd Cong., 2nd Sess. [Serial No. 666], Document No. 54),
7. The Lord was actually about one hundred miles east of the true looth meridian.
1xCopies of Federal Government plats of January, 1874, and August 4, 1874,
in Cotton County Abstract Company, Walters, Oklahoma, show this crossing,
which is at the beginning of the Byers Bend of Red River.269
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 54, July 1950 - April, 1951, periodical, 1951; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101133/m1/381/: accessed April 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.