2010-6 Remembrances Special EditionC ity of S chertz
Remembrances Publication Special Edition 2010 -6
Presented by: Schertz Historical Preservation Committee
El Camino Real De Los Teias
What began as a Native American footpath leading out of Mexico into the Texas wilderness was
to become a lifeline that facilitated the spread of European culture and influence throughout the
routes it traversed. The path was to become known as El Camino Real De Los Tejas, sometimes
also referred to as "Kings Highway" and /or Old San Antonio Road ". In the 17th and 18tH centuries
this lonesome path facilitated Spanish expansion northeastward toward present day Louisiana in
search of their French imperial rivals. Then, 13 0 years later, this same path allowed Anglo settlers
from the U.S. to begin heading southwest into Texas to seek their fortune. Over time, this
dynamic ebb and flow of people, cultures, and trade created the modern state of Texas as we
know it today. And thus, E1 Camino Real De Los Tejas has rightfully earned its designation as a
National Historic Trail.
Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison introduced the legislation that put the trail on the National Historic
Trail Registry. Since its designation as part of the National Trail System in 2004, the National
Park System has release a trail management plan that could help determine how to preserve and
unify the 2,500 -mile network of trails and trade routes. The plan identifies significant sites along
the trail and discusses how to preserve those sites. At a Comal County Historical Commission
meeting held in October 2010, the discussion focused on the fact that the Commission had
discovered that Comal County was thus far omitted from the trail's significant sits listing on the
National Park System's plan. The Commission intends to correct the omission soon. The National
Park System intends to publicize the trail's connected sites and segments map so as to provide a
more meaningful experience for people who want to travel along the trails. This effort will likely
have economic benefit for tourist related travel through the areas identified as trail locations.
There was much interest on the part of Spain, France and Great Britain in the Texas frontier
during the period of the 1861 and 19th centuries based on the European nation's search for new
markets and resources for their struggling economies at home. Spain of course claimed the
territory as a part of its holdings and kept an anxious eye on suspected French intrusions from the
northeast, now Louisiana. In 1686, when word reached the Spanish that a French explorer named
La Salle had possibly landed a fleet somewhere along the Texas Coast, Spanish expeditions
began to be sent out to search for La Salle along the coast, but to no avail. Finally, in 1689, an
expedition located the deserted French colony of Fort Saint Louis and discovered that all the
Frenchmen who had arrived there, except two, had perished there. As a secondary outcome of the
expedition, it was discovered that the Tejas Indians of the region were interested in learning of
the Christian religion. Thus, the Spanish leadership decided to establish missions and
fortifications in northeast Texas. The first mission in East Texas, San Francisco de los Tejas, was
established in June of 1690. By 1718 missions and presidios were in place on the Rio Grande
(San Yuan Bautista), at San Antonio (San Fernando de Bexar) & (San Antonio de Valero) thus
making the El Camino Real de los Tejas a major route of travel in the Spanish colonial period.
The earliest recorded instance of a U.S. citizen utilizing E1 Camino Real de los Tejas was when
Moses Austin headed west to San Antonio along the path. After his father Moses's death, son
Stephen F. Austin traveled the same route to establish a colony in the Texas territory. Soon after,
many other American citizens traveled the route to join the colony. During the hostilities between
Spain and the Anglo citizens the road was a valuable conduit for funneling volunteers to the
fighting in the San Antonio de Bexar area. Persons like Sam Houston and Davy Crockett traveled
the trail as they entered Texas.
In the 1850s, stagecoach lines began operating routes from Austin to San Antonio along the trail.
The J. S. Harrison Company began such a route with a stage coach stop in Selma. The 75 mile
trip from San Antonio to Austin took 18 hours in good weather and cost $6.00 on the Harrison
stage.
Over the hundreds of years of the trail's existence weather has played a part in how, when and
where Native Americans, explorers, armies, pioneer settlers, cattlemen and other such travelers
have chosen to traverse the pathways that came to be known as El Camino Real de los Tejas. The
slight diversions in the route from time to time cause by bad weather or threats of hostile Indian
attacks produced several parallel paths that together make up the entirety of the historic trail.
Thus, when mapping the trail, it can be thought of more as a corridor of travel rather than as a
single road.
Use of the trail fostered the mix of Spanish and Mexican traditions, laws, and cultures with those
of America, resulting in a rich legacy reflected in the people, natural and constructed landscapes,
the names of towns, counties and cities, language, music and art of today's Texas. It has served as
the conduit for exploration, trade, migration, settlement, and commerce. The Camino Real
provided access to armies on the move for more than 150 years to include Spanish, French,
Mexican, Republic of Texas and American. It helped determine the southern and western
boundaries of the United States and Mexico.
Despite the importance of the trail to our state and local history, today there is thus far little
signage from our main interstate highways that identifies the trail. One very important exception
to the signage issue is the fact that in 1918, the Daughters of the American Revolution and the
State of Texas commissioned the placement of granite memorial markers every five miles along
the trail from Mexico to Louisiana. Those markers still stand every five miles along the trail. In
the vicinity of Schertz markers appear at the intersection of Evans Rd. and Nacogdoches Road, at
21303 FM 2252 (Old Nacogdoches Road) near the entrance to the Servtex Cement Plant just
beyond Garden Ridge, along Hwy 482 just at the boundary of where Schertz and New Braunfels
meet, and another at the Crossing of Hwy 725 and Old Nacogdoches Road at the trestle overpass
in New Braunfels. Each of the granite markers which measure approximately 4 feet in height by
3 feet in width contain the same inscription which is: "Kings Highway, El Camino Real, Old San
Antonio Road. Marked by the Daughters of the American Revolution and the State of Texas AD
1918."
Thus, this historic trail that now passes through our city's boundaries is a place of great
importance with respect to what it contributed to the eventual development of our state, our
county and our community. Cities, towns and small villages sprung up along the Camino Real
during its development and it provided each with the access to outside resources critical to
survival. Schertz, through recent annexation actions, has become a stakeholder in the efforts to
maintain and promote this jewel of a natural resource.
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