In 1875, Col. Wm. R. Shafter and a company of soldiers traveled from Fort Concho, where San Angelo is today, to Monument Springs, N. Mex., charting the arid plains and mapping all the vital watering places. In the only town of today through which Shafter's Trail passes, Shafter defended his party and chased Indians who ran 12 miles to the northwest. In this way he found the salt lake known ever after by his name. His expedition's maps of this formerly unknown land opened the Permian Basin to settlement.