Horsehead Crossing was one of the most important sites in the old west. It was named for skulls pointing toward the crossing and was the only ford for many miles where animals could enter, drink, and leave the Pecos River safely, since elsewhere deep banks would trap them. The ford was mapped in 1849 by Capt. R. B. Marcy, head of an army escort for parties on their way to the California gold rush. In the 1850's it was used by a contractor for the first mail route from San Antonio to El Paso. As a change station, it echoed with the brass bugle call of the Butterfield coach carrying mail from St. Louis to San Francisco in the first stage service to span the continent, from 1858 to 1861. During the Civil War, from 1861 to 1865, it was used by wagons hauling highly valuable salt scooped from the bed of nearby Juan Cordona Lake to meet Texas scarcities. It was also a scene of spying and counterspying by Federals and Confederates watching the Overland Trail. Federals operating out of El Paso feared invasion by way of Horsehead, and Confederates several times threw back armies that sought to enter the state in order to deploy along the old Overland Trail and conquer north and west Texas. Later it became an important crossing for cattle on the Goodnight-Loving trail, mapped in 1866.