Preston Trail

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Preston Trail, later known as Old Preston Road, was the north Texas part of an ancient Indian trail extending from Mexico through central Texas all the way to what is now St. Louis, Missouri and even on to Ohio where the Shawnee Indians lived. The primary portion of the Preston Trail started at Cedar Springs (now part of downtown Dallas) and led north all the way through Grayson County where it crossed the Red River. Preston Trail became part of the first official Texas military road in 1839. The route followed the earlier Shawnee Trail cattle trail. Today Preston Road or SH 289 has been paved near, but not on the original Preston Trail and as such is named after it, but the original Preston Trail crossed almost no streams from the Red River to Cedar Springs. It followed a geographic spine of topography that still exists today where rainwater draining to the west flows into the Elm Fork of the Trinity and rainwater draining to the east flows into the East Fork of the Trinity until the rivers merge below Dallas, Texas.

Preston Trail followed this ridge that separates the East and Elm forks of the Trinity River. As a result institutions such as the Preston Ridge Campus of Collin County Community College District are named after it, and has been built near the original trail/ridge.