Preston Road is one of the oldest roads in Texas, and although it is mostly known for its length and new development, it played a key role in the history of North Texas, according to local residents.

Frisco residents Clyde and Susanne Kerley, volunteers at the Frisco Heritage Museum, said they have lived within 2 miles of Preston Road their entire lives and have watched it grow.

“Preston Road has long been a symbol of wealth and prosperity for North Texas. First, for the Caddo Indians, then the settlers traveling south for free land, then the herds [of cattle] going north and even today”

—Clyde Kerley, Frisco resident and Frisco Heritage Museum volunteer

Susanne said she grew up in a house on the corner of Preston Road. She remembers her family home being one of the only homes in the area.

She said she when she was a little girl there used to be a celebratory cattle drive once a year that would run up and down the road.

The Kerleys said the growth they have seen on Preston Road has been “astonishing.”

“Preston Road has long been a symbol of wealth and prosperity for North Texas,” Clyde said. “First, for the Caddo Indians, then the settlers traveling south for free land, then the herds [of cattle] going north and even today.”

Clyde said all roads have a unique back story, but Preston Road is especially unique since it has served different purposes since the early 1800s and maybe even before then.

The historic road begins at the intersection of Preston Road and
SH Loop 12 and Northwest Highway in Dallas. Clyde said the designation of Preston Road comes from the course of an older road it follows known as the Preston Trail, which ran to the town of Preston Bend. Now, the town is completely submerged by
Lake Texoma.

According to “Lebanon on the Preston”—a biography from 1959 about Lebanon, Texas and Preston Road—Preston Road is the oldest north-south road in North Central Texas.

According to the book the historic route was first used by buffaloes, then by Native Americans. The path was wide and mainly made of white rock that extended from the Red River to San Antonio.

Clyde said because the route followed a ridge and had easy access to water it was a favorable path to follow, especially for the Native Americans.

“There was just lots of water in good times and bad, so the Native Americans would come here to get water.” Clyde said. “So it was transportation and a source to coming to water.”

Clyde also said numerous early immigrants, traveling through the country in covered wagons, also used the trail.

Clyde said when Texas was its own independent nation from 1836-46, settlers and soldiers were having problems with the Native Americans stealing their cattle and horses and raiding their settlements.

So the Republic of Texas decided to make the road into a military road on which soldiers established forts for the settlers’ protection from the Brazos River to the Red River, Clyde said.

In charge of excavating and surveying the military road was Col. William Gordon Cooke, for whom Cooke County is named, Clyde said. Cooke sent a team of men to survey the route, and within that team was Capt. William G. Preston, who is believed to be the person the trail was named after.

The road continued to be the main immigrant route into northern Texas between 1840 and the coming of the railroad three decades later.

In the 1850s, the road also served as a cattle drive corridor, Clyde said. Cowboys would move large herds of cattle, and they knew the road was part of the Shawnee Trail.

The Shawnee Trail, of which Preston  Trail was a part, was one of the earliest and easternmost main routes by which Texas longhorn cattle were taken north to railheads. The trail passed through Austin, Waco
and Dallas.

When main cattle trails went farther west, Preston Road continued to be an important route for immigrant and freighter traffic in North Central Texas, Clyde said.

As the road has continued to be used, it has since become a six-lane road and a sign of increased commercialization in cities such as Frisco.

The historic road, also known as SH 289, will be under construction in 2016 to add additional turn lanes at some intersections in Frisco.

Susanne said it has been amazing to see how the road has developed and grown since she was a little girl.

“It’s amazing and it’s also very exciting to see that we’re in an area of the country that has done so well,” Susanne said.