Hundreds of years ago, indigenous people and buffalo traveled the wide Shawnee Trail that ran from southwestern Texas past Austin, Waco, and Dallas, eventually crossing the Red River, then through Oklahoma and on to Kansas and Missouri. At Dallas, the trail cut a wide swath in the vicinity of present-day Preston Road, making it the oldest north-south road in North Central Texas. Native Americans, and later pioneers, would stop at this stream (called Hall’s Branch) to find water as they traveled along the trail. Indian Springs, an everlasting spring, is located on the west bank of Hall’s Branch near the bridge.
During a drought in the 1930s, someone capped the Indian Springs’ water source with concrete to provide pressure for the more-accessible Keller Springs to the south. Soon after the discovery of the Frankford Prairie, we removed the cap, allowing the spring to flow again.
