The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 44, July 1940 - April, 1941 Page: 329
546 p. : ill., maps ; 24 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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The Van Dorn Trails
of the Pease. Horace P. Jones, who was one of the three, and
eminently qualified to know the frontier, did not hesitate with
the information that the road referred to was none other than
the Radziminski-Belknap Road.24 Hence it seems evident that
the old crossing on Red River was north of the point where
the town of Harrold now stands and about two or three miles
below the Davidson Bridge. The old road passed northward
up the west side of Tillman County to the old army post, which
was about five miles above the mouth of Otter Creek, the site
of which is not far from Tipton, Oklahoma.
The surveyors of the United States government mapped the
area that is now Tillman County in 1874 and 1875."" They
showed a road crossing Red River at the very point mentioned
by Jones and other witnesses. That old wagon trail crossed
Red River just two miles below the present concrete bridge on
the Vernon-Frederick highway, and ascended the east bank of
a small creek on the Oklahoma side of the river.26 At a point
a mile and a half east of the present site of Davidson, the
old road turned toward the northeast, almost paralleling the
present paved highway, until it reached a position some two
miles east of that highway and seven miles south of the modern
town of Frederick, Oklahoma. Apparently this was a water-
ing place on the upper part of Settles Creek. From here the
road turned slightly west of north, passing a mile west of
Frederick. At two miles northwest of Frederick the trail di-
vided, one branch extending a few degrees to the east of north,
while the other branch turned more to the northwest. This
northwestward branch is not completely shown in the records
but appears to connect with an old road some three and a half
miles east of present Tipton, Oklahoma. The terminus of this
trail was the original site of Camp Radziminski, about the loca-
tion of which the surveyors of 1875 leave very little room
for doubt. The old township plat shows an "old post marked
1859" in the northwest quarter of section fifteen, six miles
24Ibid., 506.
25Plat Book in the office of the County Engineer, Tillman County, Okla.
These plats are copies of the township plats of the original surveys in
the General Land Office at Washington, D. C.
26(a) Plat Book in the office of the County Engineer, Tillman County,
Oklahoma, 34, 27, 28. The road shown in the plats passes between Van
Dorn's crossing on the Red River and his camp in Indian Territory. Evi-
dently the road is identical with Van Dorn's trail, or the Radziminski road.
(b) Carter, Robert G., On the Border with Mackenzie, 122. Carter says
Mackenzie crossed the Radziminski road in this area in 1871.329
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Van Dorn's Trails, 1858 - 1859 (Map)
Survey map of Van Dorn's Trails, showing Texas and Oklahoma counties, towns, rivers, creeks, and Indian reservations.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 44, July 1940 - April, 1941, periodical, 1941; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth146052/m1/366/: accessed May 4, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.