In June 1841, Republic of Texas President Mirabeau B. Lamar commissioned an effort to increase Texas' political, military and commercial influence in Santa Fe, then a part of Mexico claimed by the Republic of Texas. A party of 321 men, including merchants, engineers, infantrymen and a newsman, left from north of Austin on Brushy Creek on June 19 with trade goods and one cannon. After struggling through the dense undergrowth of the western cross timbers of north central Texas, they burned most of their tents, poles and other gear three miles southeast of here to move faster, then forded the west fork of the Trinity River and crossed near this site at mid-day on July 26, 1841. The men endured further hardships and delays westward, were captured in the fall before reaching Santa Fe, marched to Mexico City and imprisoned, and most were finally released in April 1842. One surviving guide, Colonel William Hudson Hunt, returned to Texas, resumed surveying, and settled in Wise County after observing the region's ranching potential on the expedition. His ranch, Cactus Hill, now lies under Lake Bridgeport. Hunt later became a respected community leader, and in 1859 he and others requested that Butterfield Overland Mail Stages be rerouted south from Cooke County to Decatur and then west to Jacksboro and San Francisco. That rerouting brought bridging and ferrying for stagecoaches and freight wagons at this Trinity River crossing and led to the creation of the town of Bridgeport in 1860.