Texas Ranger Trail

This winding, 100-mile trail from San Antonio to Kerrville was, during the 19th century, a strategic patrol road traveled by Texas Rangers to protect the surrounding area from hostile Indian attacks. During uneasy pioneer days roads such as this, regularly scouted by Rangers, helped promote early white settlement by strengthening frontier defense. Because Bandera was located midway on the trail and because Bandera Pass, 10 miles north, frequently harbored Indian ambushers, the town became a focal point for Ranger activities along the road. Perhaps the best-known battle to occur on the old route happened in Bandera Pass in the spring of 1841. At that time a company of 40 Texas Rangers, under intrepid Indian fighter Capt. "Jack" Hays, was on a scouting mission in the Guadalupe Mountains. Halfway through the pass, they were suddenly attacked by several hundred wild Comanches who lay hidden in the brush and behind boulders in the narrow gorge. A bloody fight ensued, much of it hand-to-hand combat with Bowie knives; but after their chief was slain, the Indians withdrew and finally escaped. Thus the Rangers and this trail helped remove the Indian menace and open the frontier across Texas. (1968)

Texas Ranger Trail is a historical marker in Bandera, Bandera County, dedicated in 1968. It is one of 29 historical markers documented in Bandera County in the Texas Historical Commission Atlas, among 56 historic sites cataloged across the county.

The site sits at 29.7282, -99.0723 near Bandera. The nearest cataloged historic site is Phillips, Captain Jack (historical marker), about under a tenth of a mile away. Others within a short drive include Mormon Settlers in Bandera Cournty, Frontier Times Museum, and Langford, B.F., Jr. and Mary Hay House.

This record corresponds to Texas Historical Commission Atlas #5019003823. Use the map below for its exact position and turn-by-turn directions.