The El Camino Real de los Tejas National Historic Trail is a national historic trail covering the U.S. section of ''El Camino Real de Los Tejas'', a thoroughfare from the 18th-century Spanish colonial era in

Spanish Texas Spanish Texas was one of the interior provinces of the colonial Viceroyalty of New Spain from 1690 until 1821. The term "interior provinces" first appeared in 1712, as an expression meaning "far away" provinces. It was only in 1776 that a lega ...

, instrumental in the settlement, development, and history of Texas. The

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...

designated El Camino Real de los Tejas National Historic Trail as a unit in the

National Trails System The National Trails System is a series of trails in the United States designated "to promote the preservation of, public access to, travel within, and enjoyment and appreciation of the open-air, outdoor areas and historic resources of the Nati ...

in 2004. The modern highways Texas 21 (along with Texas OSR) and Louisiana 6 roughly follow the original route of the trail.

History

El Camino Real de los Tejas National Historic Trail

Alonso de León, Spanish governor of

Coahuila Coahuila (), formally Coahuila de Zaragoza (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Coahuila de Zaragoza ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Coahuila de Zaragoza), is one of the 32 states of Mexico. Coahuila borders the Mexican states of N ...

, established the corridor for what became El Camino Real de los Tejas in multiple expeditions to

East Texas East Texas is a broadly defined cultural, geographic, and ecological region in the eastern part of the U.S. state of Texas that comprises most of 41 counties. It is primarily divided into Northeast and Southeast Texas. Most of the region cons ...

between 1686 and 1690 to find and destroy a French fort near

Lavaca Bay Lavaca Bay () is a northwestern extension of the Matagorda Bay system found mostly in Calhoun County, Texas, United States. The ports of Port Lavaca and Point Comfort have been established on the bay, and are the main areas of human habitation ...

, established by René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle on what de León considered to be Spanish lands. The route was refined in 1691-1692 by

Domingo Terán de los Ríos Domingo Terán de los Ríos served as the first governor of Texas from 1691 to 1692. He also governed Coahuila, in the modern-day Mexico. Previous service Terán served the Spanish crown in Peru for two decades. He came to Mexico in 1681 as a ...

, the first governor of Spanish Texas, in an effort to make better connections to the Spanish missions in East Texas.

San Antonio de Bexar ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , subdivision_t ...

, founded in 1718, was the first of many communities built as way stations on the trail. After Mexico achieved independence from Spain in 1821, immigrants from the American colonies invited to Texas used the corridor to travel to their settlements. A section of the road called Camino Arriba by the Spanish became known as the

Old San Antonio Road The Old San Antonio Road was a historic roadway located in the U.S. states of Texas and Louisiana. Parts of it were based on traditional Native American trails. Its Texas terminus was about southeast of Eagle Pass at the Rio Grande in Maverick ...

. The growth of towns such as Austin,

Galveston Galveston ( ) is a coastal resort city and port off the Southeast Texas coast on Galveston Island and Pelican Island in the U.S. state of Texas. The community of , with a population of 47,743 in 2010, is the county seat of surrounding Ga ...

, and

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

not on the original route, along with the building of railroads, changed the direction of travel and trade and the use of El Camino Real de los Tejas diminished.

Route

The historic trail ran from the capitol and central

Viceroyalty of New Spain New Spain, officially the Viceroyalty of New Spain ( es, Virreinato de Nueva España, ), or Kingdom of New Spain, was an integral territorial entity of the Spanish Empire, established by Habsburg Spain during the Spanish colonization of the Amer ...

— present day

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...

— winding through

Saltillo Saltillo () is the capital and largest city of the northeastern Mexican state of Coahuila and is also the municipal seat of the municipality of the same name. Mexico City, Monterrey, and Saltillo are all connected by a major railroad and highwa ...

Monterrey Monterrey ( , ) is the capital and largest city of the northeastern state of Nuevo León, Mexico, and the third largest city in Mexico behind Guadalajara and Mexico City. Located at the foothills of the Sierra Madre Oriental, the city is anchor ...

, Laredo (on the modern Texas border),

San Antonio ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= U.S. state, State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , s ...

, and

Nacogdoches Nacogdoches ( ) is a small city in East Texas and the county seat of Nacogdoches County, Texas, United States. The 2020 U.S. census recorded the city's population at 32,147. Nacogdoches is a sister city of the smaller, similarly named Natchitoch ...

, before reaching the Louisiana border at the Sabine River. The river crossing was a ferry, in use since around 1795, as the Chabanan Ferry. James Taylor Gaines purchased the ferry in 1819, and it became known as the

Gaines Ferry ''Gaines Ferry'' was a ferry on the Sabine River (Texas–Louisiana), Sabine River, between what is now Sabine Parish, Louisiana and Sabine County, Texas, at the eastern terminus of Texas State Highway 21, and the western terminus of Louisiana Hig ...

. Gaines sold the ferry in 1843 and at some point it began to be called Pendleton's Ferry. The ferry remained in service until being replaced by the Gaines-Pendleton Bridge in 1937. After crossing the river, the trail went through the Neutral Strip and Many, Louisiana, before ending at Natchitoches in modern Louisiana.
The trail has a 2,500-mile length. For centuries, the Native Americans had used the trail routes for trading between the

Great Plains The Great Plains (french: Grandes Plaines), sometimes simply "the Plains", is a broad expanse of flatland in North America. It is located west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, an ...

and

Chihuahuan Desert The Chihuahuan Desert ( es, Desierto de Chihuahua, ) is a desert ecoregion designation covering parts of northern Mexico and the southwestern United States. It occupies much of far West Texas, the middle to lower Rio Grande Valley and the lower P ...

regions and essentially created the road. El Camino Real de Los Tejas was first followed and marked by Spanish explorers and missionaries in the 1700s. It was one of several named ''El Camino Real'', or "Royal Road", that connected the Spanish possessions in North America with Mexico City.

Preservation

Interest in the road revived in the early 20th century. In 1915, the

Texas Legislature The Texas Legislature is the state legislature of the US state of Texas. It is a bicameral body composed of a 31-member Senate and a 150-member House of Representatives. The state legislature meets at the Capitol in Austin. It is a powerful ...

appropriated $5,000 to survey and mark the route, and professional surveyor V. N. Zivley was commissioned to make the study. A few years later, the

Daughters of the American Revolution The Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) is a lineage-based membership service organization for women who are directly descended from a person involved in the United States' efforts towards independence. A non-profit group, they promote ...

placed granite milestones every 5 miles along the route to mark it. In October 2004, President

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

signed into law El Camino Real de los Tejas National Historic Trail. The

started planning for El Camino Real de los Tejas National Historic Trail in 2006 with a comprehensive management plan.

References

External links

* *
History of the trail

El Camino Real de los Tejas National Historic Trail Association

El Camino Real de los Tejas National Historic Trail
– Texas Department of Transportation
Video footage of the El Camino Real de los Tejas National Trail from America’s Great Outdoors - Sabine National Forest (1992)
on the

Texas Archive of the Moving Image The Texas Archive of the Moving Image (TAMI) is an independent 501(c)(3) organization founded in 2002 by film archivist and University of Texas at Austin professor Caroline Frick, PhD. TAMI's mission is to preserve, study, and exhibit Texas film h ...

{{authority control Spanish Texas Historic trails and roads in Texas Historic trails and roads in Louisiana Colonial United States (Spanish) National Park Service areas in Texas National Park Service areas in Louisiana Protected areas established in 2004 2004 establishments in Texas 2004 establishments in Louisiana

History

Route

Preservation

See also

References

External links