| El Camino Real de los Tejas National Historic Trail | |
|---|---|
 Location of trail | |
 | |
| Location | Texas,Louisiana;USA |
| Nearest city | Natchitoches, LA (start) &Laredo, TX |
| Established | 2004 |
| Governing body | National Park Service |
| Website | El Camino Real de los Tejas National Historic Trail |
TheEl Camino Real de los Tejas National Historic Trail, also known as theOld San Antonio Road, is a national historic trail covering the U.S. section ofEl Camino Real de Los Tejas, a thoroughfare from the 18th-century Spanish colonial era inSpanish Texas, instrumental in the settlement, development, and history of Texas. TheNational Park Service designated El Camino Real de los Tejas National Historic Trail as a unit in theNational Trails System in 2004.
The modern highwaysTexas 21 (along withTexas OSR) andLouisiana 6 roughly follow the original route of the trail.[1]
Alonso de León, Spanish governor ofCoahuila, established the corridor for what became El Camino Real de Tierra Afuera in multiple expeditions toEast Texas between 1686 and 1690 to find and destroy a French fort nearLavaca Bay,[2] established byRené-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle on what de León considered to be Spanish lands. The route was refined in 1691-1692 byDomingo Terán de los Ríos, the first governor of Spanish Texas, in an effort to make better connections to the Spanish missions in East Texas.San Antonio de Bexar, founded in 1718, was the first of many communities built as way stations on the trail.[3]
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 theOld San Antonio Road. The growth of towns such asAustin,Galveston, andHouston 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.
The historic trail ran from the capitol and centralViceroyalty of New Spain—present dayMexico City—winding throughSaltillo,Monterrey,Laredo (on the modern Texas border),San Antonio, andNacogdoches, before reaching the Louisiana border at theSabine 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 theGaines Ferry. Gaines sold the ferry in 1843 and at some point it began to be called Pendleton's Ferry.[4] The ferry remained in service until being replaced by the Gaines-Pendleton Bridge in 1937.
After crossing the river, the trail went through theNeutral Strip andMany, Louisiana, before ending atNatchitoches in modern Louisiana.[5] The trail has a 2,500-mile length. For centuries, theNative Americans had used the trail routes for trading between theGreat Plains andChihuahuan Desert 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 namedEl Camino Real, or "Royal Road", that connected the Spanish possessions in North America with Mexico City.
Interest in the road revived in the early 20th century. In 1915, theTexas Legislature 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, theDaughters of the American Revolution placed granite milestones every 5 miles along the route to mark it.
In October 2004, PresidentGeorge W. Bush signed into law El Camino Real de los Tejas National Historic Trail. TheNational Park Service started planning for El Camino Real de los Tejas National Historic Trail in 2006 with a comprehensive management plan.
30°18′03″N97°44′06″W / 30.30077°N 97.73510°W /30.30077; -97.73510
