Castle Gap

If you are visiting Castle Gap, plan to visit the fine folks in McCamey, Texas

Castle Gap is a canyon that separates Castle Mountain from King Mountain and is known as a key point on the western branch of the Comanche Trail.  From Castle Gap, the trail ran to Horsehead Crossing about 12 miles to the southwest, then to Comanche Springs in Fort Stockton, then south into Big Bend country and into Mexico.

Castle Gap is also the center of a number of buried treasure legends, including gold said to have been cached by Francisco Vásquez de Coronado^qv in 1540, and the treasure of Mexican emperor Maximilian, stashed in 1867.

If you are interested in a thorough treatment of Castle Gap, Patrick Dearen's Castle Gap and the Pecos Frontier is recommended.  Shorter discussions are also available in Gelo and Pate's Texas Indian Trails.  For on-line reading, see Handbook of Texas Online.

TerraServer

Click on the image to go to TerraServer.  Red circle shows Castle Mountain; Green circle shows King Mountain; Yellow arrow shows Castle Gap between the two .. direction of arrow is towards Horsehead Crossing, about 12 miles to the southwest.