The Shawnee Trail

In 1838 the Republic of Texas Congress appropriated money to build a north-south road that opened northern Texas to trade. Project leader Colonel William G. Cooke followed an existing Indian trail running from the Red River to Austin. A supply fort established on the river near Holland Coffee's trading post was named for Captain William G. Preston, a veteran of the Texas Revolution who commanded troops stationed there in 1840. The section of the road from the Red River south to the Trinity River crossing became known as Preston Road. At that crossing, John Neely Bryan began the settlement of Dallas in 1841. By the 1850s the route was known as the Shawnee Trail and was used by immigrants entering Texas, and it also served as a cattle trail to northern markets. Cattle drives declined as new trails opened for the expanding Texas cattle industry, and the route declined further after rail lines reached the area in the 1870s. Lebanon served as an assembly point for cattle drives on the Shawnee Trail, but after the Frisco Railroad bypassed the town in 1902, Lebanon declined; its post office, opened in 1860, closed in 1905.

Frisco, Texas · United States