Known to Europeans since the 18th century, Howard's Well was linked by legend to Franciscan Padre Alvarez, who prayed for water, set down his staff, and saw a spring burst from the ground. This landmark of western travel took its name from Richard A. Howard of San Antonio, a former Texas Ranger, who rediscovered it while serving with an 1848 expedition under Col. John Coffee Hays to map a wagon road from San Antonio to El Paso, accompanied by other men and 15 Delaware Indian guides. Although the well aided the party, the expedition failed and turned back near starvation. In 1849 the US Army mapped the route with Howard as a guide, and many forty-niners later passed this way on their way to the California gold rush. In 1853 the first regular San Antonio to El Paso mail line was routed by the well, and many later ventures followed the same course. Indians often visited the well though white travelers rarely saw them there. On April 20, 1872, Comanches and Kiowas surprised a large wagon train led by a man named Gonzales at the well and killed 16 people, an event that helped lead the US Government to cancel hunting permits for reservation Indians.