Country United States of America | ||
Grierson Spring is a historic seep spring located in the southwestern part of Reagan County, Texas, approximately 12.5 miles southwest of the community of Big Lake, and is part of the eastern tributary arrangement of Live Oak Draw, itself a part of the Pecos River drainage system.
Map of Grierson Springs, Texas, USA
The small spring now shows limited, seasonal flow only in wet years, but, before settlement of the area, was the only permanent water in Reagan County and the surrounding area. It was used extensively by prehistoric peoples and by the Jumano, Apache, and Comanche in historic times, remaining unknown and undiscovered by whites until late in Texas' history despite lying within twenty miles of the Upper Road, famous in the Gold Rush days of the early 1850s, which Road was made a part of the Butterfield Overland Stage Route and which later became the Goodnight-Loving Trail. The Spring became the origin point for the first land surveys of the region in the early 1870s.
The Handbook of Texas identifies the spring as being on a direct line between forts Concho and Stockton, and, after its discovery over the winter of 1877–78, then Colonel Benjamin Grierson, commandant at Fort Concho in San Angelo and head of the District of the Pecos, established a telegraph maintenance office and subpost at that location, re-routing the existing Fort Concho-to-Fort Stockton telegraph. The spring subsequently received his name. The transfer of the line and road cut 15 miles from the existing stage route, supply road, and telegraph line between the forts and provided a strategic maintenance post for the telegraph line where none was before, ensuring that it stayed in operation.
The subpost, consisting of a number of limestone buildings and corrals, was built, occupied, and maintained by detachments of Buffalo soldiers from the 16th, 24th, and 25th Infantry and the 10th Cavalry from the time of its construction in 1878 until its abandonment in September 1882; however, before being closed, the subpost, telegraph line, and supply road contributed materially to the US Army's 1879–1880 campaign against the Apache warrior, Victorio, and his followers. The road continued to be used for many years thereafter by area settlers and others passing through on their way west.
Now located on private land, the once notably-beautiful facilities have been in ruins for many years, and the site is no longer accessible to the public, being frequented only by the owner, his friends, and limited oil & gas traffic. In spite of its isolation, or maybe because of it, the ruins have reverted to a rustic beauty, reserved for spots that have possessed a once-significant, but fleeting glory - now, only a small, largely forgotten spot whose discovery contributed materially both to prehistoric life and to the settlement of the area.