This road long predated recorded history, carved by centuries of winter travel south and spring migration north by millions of bison and by Indians who hunted them. It became important in the era of Texas Panhandle settlement and was used in 1873-1874, when the first lifelong residents built dugout dwellings in the Panhandle and began hunting buffalo for hides and meat. After Fort Elliott was established in 1875 to regulate Indians resisting white settlement, the nearby town of Mobeetie became for some years the county seat for 28 counties and a center for medical aid, supplies, and stage travel. In 1876 Kansans traveled south along this route for better hunting and called it the Rath Trail for their leader, and that same year cattlemen began bringing herds over it. By 1880 the ancient path had become a southern arm of the Jones and Plummer Trail, carrying longhorns to railroads and northern cattle markets. Beginning about 1887, nesters used the trail to take up farmland alongside the old great ranches, helping found and expand the Panhandle's agricultural-commercial economy.