11/7/2023 0 Comments Sarah secrets preston road“Some came from Europe, others from Canada and Mexico.”īy the early 1900s, horses and buggies began to cover the road, and development furthered in North Texas. Many wore moccasins some were clad in boots some were swift, some were slow,” reads an excerpt from Lebanon on the Preston. “No one will ever be able to estimate the number of people who have traveled Preston Road. Longhorn cattle marched up and down the road, but as other cities began to flourish in 1870, cattle trails ventured farther west. Cooke, with the road starting near the community of Preston Bend in present Grayson County. In the same year, the railroad was completed by soldiers under the command of Col. After years of disputes between Native Americans and settlers, a treaty was signed in 1843 to prevent more violence, increasing the traffic on Old Preston Road. But life for those settlers wasn’t as easy as getting free land. At the time, the land was free to settlers, 640 acres to a married couple or 320 to a single settler, causing an influx of new residents, primarily immigrants. “It straightened out and became what we know today.”Īt the start of 1840, and the beginning of the railroad, the newly named Old Preston Road was a hot spot for immigrant transportation into North Texas. “Over time, the road has shifted from where the trail was,” Anderson tells me as she points to the early map of Collin County. The aged drawings now look dark, and it’s hard to make out what we now call Preston Road. Photo courtesy of Heritage Association of FriscoĪnderson takes me down the stairs of the museum and quickly points to a drawing of a map showing the original trail. Preston, who built a fort where the trail crossed the Red River, became part of the first official Texas military road in 1839. What was then known as Preston Trail, named after Col. During those early years, heavy rainfall created a spine that followed the trail, flowing from the Elm Fork of the Trinity River and draining into the East Fork of the Trinity River until the rivers merged downstream of Dallas, creating the perfect fortress for a Shawnee village on the Texas side of the Red River. Louis, Missouri, to Mexico, parts of which were originally known as the Chihuahua Trail and the Shawnee Trail. From horses and cowboys to trains and buggies, the mural shows the road’s progress through time.Īt the beginning of the 1800s, Preston Road was part of a Native American trail that extended from St. The book by Adelle Rogers Clark offers a glimpse into the vast history and past of Preston Road.Ī quote from Lebanon on the Preston welcomes guests to the Frisco Heritage Museum, relating the many names of Preston Road with a mural depicting the history of the route. Lebanon on the Preston is not only a book from the 1950s but also a tool used by the museum. “This will tell you everything you need to know about the history of Preston Road,” Donna Anderson, a historian at the Frisco Heritage Museum, tells me as she walks down the length of the mural just inside the doors of the museum. Mural at the Heritage Association of Frisco | Photo: Matilda Preisendorf Then Preston Road was known by many names: the Buffalo Trail, an Indian Warpath, the Austin Road, the Kansas Trail, the Cattle Trail, Whiterock Road and the Texas Trail. The commercial highway of Preston Road, the namesake of the original trail, stretches from Dallas through Addison, Plano, Frisco, Celina and Prosper. Preston Road is the oldest north-south road in the state and a commonly used commute from Collin County to Dallas. But what I didn’t know when I started making the drive was that every morning, I am driving over a piece of deep Texas history. I take the same route every day - this route, passing through the same stoplights and seeing the same landmarks. Due to towns ceasing to exist and new ones beginning, Preston Road has changed over time and does not follow its original path. Yet part of the historic route remains simply something of the past, and we may never know exactly where the trail began. It seems fitting for a piece of Texas’s history to now be a lively farm. Near the entrance of Brinkmann Ranch, just off Preston Road and Frisco’s Main Street, is part of an outpost for Preston Trail’s original path. If you ignore that, it’s peaceful, almost serene - horses grazing while farmers patch part of the fence, the cool wind blowing my hair and the smell of wheat.
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