Near this site, the Cherokee Indians blazed an early Texas trail to connect their settlements near Nacogdoches with their home reservation on the White River in Arkansas. About 1821, they chose a man known for his uncanny sense of direction, and as he rode north dragging buffalo skins behind him, groups of Indians followed to blaze trees, clear heavy underbrush and trees, and establish camping grounds by springs where they planted Cherokee roses that still mark the route today. Sam Houston, a friend of the Cherokee, traveled this road on his first visit to Texas. David Crockett, other Texas revolution fighters, and thousands of settlers from the northeastern United States first saw Texas from this road, and many established homes nearby. The Cherokee remained peaceful as long as Sam Houston was President of the Republic, but in June 1839 they were ordered from Texas because of raids and intrigues with Mexican agents. A two-day battle followed on the Neches River, where their chief was killed, and the tribe retreated fighting and left Texas by the famous trail they had made.