A major route for cattle drives known primarily as the Western Trail developed from far South Texas to Dodge City, Kansas, in the 1870s. About 1876, trail drivers along the route began crossing the Red River near this site. In 1878, Ohio native Jonathan Doan established a trading post near the crossing and became the first person to permanently settle in Wilbarger County, which was organized in 1881. In the early 1880s, he and his partner and nephew Corwin F. Doan recorded the passage of hundreds of thousands of cattle along this river crossing, which became known as Doan's Crossing.