Learning about Long Tom Trace

One of Polk County’s nine Indian Trails

Posted

Editor’s note: This is the sixth of a multi-part series intended to bring awareness to the traces, highlight each of the nine trails separately with descriptions of each, seek public input on the missing Indian Trace highway marker signs and let the public know that work is underway to replace the signs.

By Betsy Deiterman

Curator, Polk County Memorial Museum

Long before the Republic of Texas, Native Americans of many tribes created trails, or traces, through Eastern Texas for trade and transportation. From 1975-1978, the Bicentennial Committee of the Polk County Historical Commission in conjunction with TXDOT placed 64 markers in Polk County where these traces crossed our modern roads.

In 2022, Polk County Historical Commission took note of the dilapidated markers, and they began working with the Alabama-Coushatta Tribal Council and Historic Preservation Office to locate any remaining road signs in an effort to replace them.

In this ongoing series, we will describe the trails individually and show the signs that have been located, and descriptions of the ones that have not been found. We are asking for help from citizens to locate any markers that have not been noted. Most of these road signs have lost their paint; many have been used for target practice, and some may have been removed after car crashes or roadwork. Most are only recognizable from the shape of the sign or a wayward post that has lost its sign.

If you know of a sign that is listed as not found, please take a photo and write a description of the location (GPS is helpful) and send to museum@co.polk.tx.us.

Long Tom Trace was named for a Coushatta Chief who lived in the first half of the 19th century (approx. 1850.) His village was in the Long King Creek valley in western Polk County. Long Tom Trace extended northward from Long King’s Village on Long King Creek in the western part of the county, crossed Long Tom Creek, and continued to the Coushatta Trace west of present Moscow. The trail was used to provide a route from Long King’s Village to campsites and hunting grounds near Long Tom Creek. Long Tom Trace also served as an alternate route between Long King’s Village and Peach Tree Village in Tyler County when weather conditions made Long King’s Trace too boggy for travel.

From 1975 to 1978, the Indian Trails Committee of the Polk County Historical Commission placed five road sign markers along Long Tom Trace:

1. FM 1988 across from Mount Rose Cemetery.

2. FM 350 ¾ mile south of US 190 - not found.

3. On US 190 at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, 2590 US 190, at intersection with FM 350 North, Livingston.

4. FM 942 ½ mile east of Barnett Creek: two markers, one on each side of road.

5. FM 350: ¾ mile east of Holshousen-Darby Cemetery at its junction with Coushatta Trace, five miles east of Moscow - not found.