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EL CAMINO REAL
by Archie P. McDonald |
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In
2004, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison succeeded in persuading Congress to designate
El Camino Real, at least the Texas and Louisiana portions, a national historic
corridor. We Texans, especially we East Texans, knew it all along.
El
Camino Real, or King's Highway, or Royal Road, designates an official thoroughfare,
much as we would refer to I-20 or US 59 today. It began in 1690 when Alonzo DeLeon
crossed Texas on a northeastern course previously untroubled by Europeans to establish
Mission
San Francisco de las Tejas near the Neches River so France would understand
that the territory belonged to Spain.
In 1691, Domingo Teran de los Rios
used much the same route to bring supplies to the mission, which was abandoned
in 1693. In 1714 the French began to threaten Spanish interests in East Texas,
so Spaniard missionaries and presidio soldiers used the route to establish
and sustain six missions until 1773. El Camino Real, by then also known
as Old San Antonio Road, if still just a trail, could be called "established."
Actually, Old San Antonio Road had many routes that came together at San
Antonio and Nacogdoches,
the only two population clusters along the 540-mile trace. Sometimes routes varied
because of flooding or dangers from Indians, but they all focused on these settlements.
Spain's
thrust had been northeastward, but by the 1820s Anglo immigrants had reversed
the predominant direction of the flow as they passed through Nacogdoches
to new settlements further west.
In 1915, our legislature wanted to honor
the Old San Antonio Road, so they appropriated $5,000 so V.N. Zivley could conduct
a survey and tell them its exact route. The Daughters of the American Revolution
provided funds to erect pink granite markers, according to Zivley's designation.
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Marker
for the Camino Real (King's Highway) that passes through Milam.
Photo courtesy Terry
Jeanson, December, 2007 |
In 1989, a subsequent
legislature created the Old San Antonio Road Commission to commemorate the 300th
anniversary of the founding of the road, and for some reason Governor William
P. Clements asked me to serve on it. I can immodestly say that Senator Hutchison
completed, as only she could do, that for which we worked a decade and half ago.
And this: that blamed Commission just laughed at me when I moved that we change
the road's name to the Old Nacogdoches Road because San
Antonio was only a stop over on the way to Nacogdoches.
© Archie P. McDonald
All
Things Historical >
July 30, 2006 column
A syndicated column in over 70 East Texas newspapers
This column is provided as a public service by the East Texas Historical
Association. Archie P. McDonald is director of the Association and author of more
than 20 books on Texas. | |
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