The Chihuahua Road was a nineteenth-century lifeline that connected Chihuahua, Mexico, with the Texas port of Indianola. Opened to exploit rich trade in Mexican silver and gold, the road eventually carried every type of goods, adventurers, settlers, soldiers, and "Forty-Niners" bound for the California gold rush. The road was traversed by many types of vehicles: stagecoaches, wagons, ox-carts, and traveling ambulances, which were light carriages with 4-foot wheels. Not until the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railway came to San Antonio in 1877 did this road lose its commercial importance. (1968)