On April 26, 1854, the U.S. War Department ordered a survey of land for Indian reservations in unsettled territory, “preferably on timbered land of good soil adjacent to navigable water.” Four leagues of land on the Brazos River below Fort Belknap were selected for use by the Caddos, Wacos and other tribes, and another tract of the same size 40 miles away for the Comanches. A third tract on the Brazos was designated for the Mescalero and Lipan Apaches. The reservations reverted to the state when the tribes were removed to the Indian Territory in 1859.