Big Tree's Raiding Ground

Gainesville to Decatur

Saint Jo has a marker on the south side of the square describing the significance of the town's location at the head of Elm Branch. At about five miles south of Forestburg on FM 455 is a marker commemorating the site of the Butterfield Stage Line. Both towns have historical cemeteries bearing victims of Indian raids. Further details are available in Montague County Historical Markers. Two miles east of Alvord on the Old Decatur Road sits a marker about the 1874 Huff Family Massacre and Decatur has more than half a dozen significant historical markers concerning the Indian wars. For further details, consult the Wise County Historical Markers.

Big Tree

W.B. Parker, a traveling companion of R.B. Marcy's 1853 trip into Texas, describes in his book, Through Unexplored Texas, his first impressions of the Red River, Preston and Gainesville.