Burr Ferry in western Louisiana long served as an important crossing on the Sabine River. Texas cattlemen used it to move herds toward Opelousas and Alexandria, pioneers heading west used it as a jumping-off point to the frontier, and traders carried goods across the river there. People also claimed that Aaron Burr saw it as a staging point for a secret plan to invade Texas and annex it for the United States. Because few rivers had bridges, ferries became a common and more reliable way to cross waterways, often using flat barges guided and propelled by cables and pulleys, with fares that could rise at night or in bad weather. Cattle drovers used ferries for wagons and supplies while swimming their herds across and sometimes pasturing them nearby. During the Civil War, Texas feared Federal use of Burr Ferry as an invasion point, so breastworks were built on both sides of the river, timber was cleared for visibility, and men and supplies crossed from Texas to support the Confederacy, although the only fighting there was a small skirmish with Union cavalry scouts. The ferry took its name from Dr. Timothy Burr, a cousin of Aaron Burr, who according to family history left Ohio with six other men in 1807, traveled by the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, went overland to Natchitoches, explored the Sabine, settled at Pearl Creek, and established a cotton gin, gristmill, sawmill, and ferry that grew into a business serving other settlers. Burr Ferry also became associated with the rough lore of No Man's Land, including stories of a counterfeiter called John Doe, the Lone Sassafras tree that guided travelers, ambushes of cattlemen returning with gold, and Plunkaway Cemetery, where some unknown travelers were buried and where legend traced the name to a dying outlaw's request. The Burr Ferry Road was one of four key roads crossing the river and running through No Man's Land, a remote region where settlers, traders, cattle drovers, smugglers, and highwaymen all traveled. It formed part of the Beef Trail from Liberty, Texas, across the Sabine, toward Alexandria and Natchitoches, connecting Texas cattle and goods to larger markets and onward shipment to New Orleans. Burr Ferry was also linked to Nolan's Trace, named for adventurer Philip Nolan, whose route from Louisiana to Texas was later followed by the road through the area; before his death in 1800 at the hands of Spanish troops, Nolan had made four major expeditions into Texas between 1791 and 1800 after securing trading and travel rights from Spain and America.