A low spot in the wheat field, visible by its lighter color, led me to wonder if it was a remnant of the cattle drive erosion that the plow has not been able to erase. If you follow the path on the left, around the stand of trees, you will find the granite Red River Station monument.

There is power, in certain places. It fills you with a sense of mystery, of history and romance.

Of course, it helps to know where you are. If I had been standing in that wheat field -- or rather, in the dirt lane at the edge of the wheat field -- without knowing anything about the history of the location, I might not have felt the way I did. But a thrill of excitement coursed through me, as if I'd been plugged into an electric socket.

This was a place of history. This was the point where thousands of herds, millions of cattle, gathered.

There are many places in Texas that can claim to be on the old Chisholm Trail. And their claims would be based on the fact that, yes, herds of cattle passed by there on the way to Red River Station, and the Chisholm Trail that led through Indian Territory. But the fact remains that the cattle were gathered from all over south and central Texas and followed multiple trails north to Red River Station. They did not follow a common trail until they reached this area.

Today it is a wheat field, surrounded by other wheat fields. Nearby, there are hundreds if not thousands of pumpjacks still pumping crude oil from the Nocona North-Spanish Fort Field discovered in the 1920s. Longhorns are nowhere to be seen. Nor, today at least, are cowboys visible anywhere on horseback, although the rodeo arena in Nocona and the popularity of the Nocona Boots suggest that they are still around this area of North Texas.