DEFINITION AND DOCUMENTATION OF EL CAMINO REAL

DEFINITION

Four main royal roads led to Mexico City during the Spanish period. One ran from Veracruz in the east, another from Acapulco via Chilpanzingo in the west, a third crossed into Oaxaca from Guatemala in the south, and the fourth road traversed the interior of Mexico to Santa Fe in the faraway northern province of New Mexico. These four capitals connected with the vice regal capital in Mexico City, in keeping with the traditional relationship established under Spanish custom and practice governing royal roads in Europe and and the New World. Historically, a camino real (Royal Road) is defined as a road that connects Spanish capital with Spanish capital, a distinction not shared with roads connecting ordinary Spanish or Indian villages.


The term Camino Real implied that the status and privileges granted to the villas and capitals it connected were extended to the main routes of travel through use by officials and others acting in the interest of the crown. Unlike ordinary Indian and Spanish villages, villas like San Antonio and others along the route had charters that prescribed royal privileges. An important factor under which a town received a set of privileges was its economic importance to a region, province, or colony. Similarly, the main road through the villa or series of villas enjoyed the privileges granted. Historically, royal roads connected economically important Spanish towns, capitals of provinces, and mines that possessed a charter prescribing royal privileges.



As defined in the enabling legislation, El Camino Real de los Tejas was established to connect a series of Spanish missions and posts between Monclova, Mexico, and Los Adaes, the first capital of the province of Texas (in what is now northwestern Louisiana). The legislation also defines El Camino Real as an approximately 1, 000-mile long corridor of changing routes from Saltillo through Monclova and Guerrero, Coahuila, Mexico; San Antonio and Nacogdoches, Texas, and then east to the vicinity of Los Adaes in what is now Louisiana. It constituted the only primary overland route from the Rio Grande to the Red River Valley in Louisiana during the Spanish Colonial Period.



Over time, geographic, religious, political, economic, and military factors resulted in the evolution of the early routes of El Camino Real into a series of changing roadways and trails. Although the legislation authorizing this study recognizes these changing routes as components of El Camino Real, each route has its own distinctive history and nomenclature. The Old San Antonio Road, one of the better known of these changing routes, was used from about 1795 to 1850 as the primary migration route from the east to what is now Texas.

DESCRIPTION OF ROUTES

The road from the Rio Grande to Los Adaes, near Robeline, Louisiana, must be considered in two segments separated by San Antonio. Ordered geographically and chronologically, the first extended (in the United States) from the Rio Grande to San Antonio. From 1721 through 1722, El Camino Real ran from the present state of Coahuila, Mexico, through San Antonio to Los Adaes, the first capital of Spanish Texas, near Natchitoches, Louisiana. When San Antonio was the capital of Texas (1772 - 1821) it was the terminus for El Camino Real from the Rio Grande and points south.

Rio Grande to San Antonio

The three basic routes between the Rio Grande and San Antonio were the Pita Road, theLower Presidio Road, and routes from the Laredo area. The first Spanish expeditions into Texas from Monclova, Coahuila, crossed the Rio Grande at fords long used by the indigenous people of the area. Later, the presidio de San Juan Bautista and its associated missions were established near modem Guerrero, Coahuila. Of the several fords in this area, Paso de Francia was most commonly noted by travelers. Starting in 1689 El Camino Real between Paso de Francia and San Antonio evolved, gradually becoming known as the "Camino Pita," or the Pita Road, named for a campsite first used in 1716. These roads, which went northeast from Paso de Francia and then east toward San Antonio, were used by the first Spanish explorers and settlers of Texas. This remained the set route of subsequent expeditions through the 1720s, until Indian conflicts forced traffic to move farther south. Detailed records and site investigations for a segment of the route near the current intersection of Maverick, Zavala, and Dimrnit counties are not available, so that segment is shown as a dashed line.


The second, later route, used primarily from 1750 to 1800, was known as the Lower Presidio Road. It went almost straight east from Paso de Francia before turning north to San Antonio. This route was also known as Camino de en Medio because the route was between two other roads, the Pita Road to the north route then turned back to the northwest, following the San Antonio River to San Antonio.

Later, an "Upper Presidio Road" was opened (1795-1850). That road generally followed the route of the earlier Camino Pita to a point east of the Frio River, a short distance west of San Antonio, where the two roads diverged (see map: U.S. Portion of EI Camino Real de los Tejas).

Together, these roads from San Juan Bautista to San Antonio represent continuous use across the centuries. Segments of the roads were used by indigenous people when the first Spaniards followed them to cross the Rio Grande and settle in Texas, and the roads were used intermittently and in changing patterns over the years.

San Antonio to Los Adaes

During the 18th century there were two main routes between San Antonio and Los Adaes, the Upper Road, or the Camino de los Tejas (1691-1800) and the Lower Road (1730s-90s). The Upper Road through or near modern New Braunfels and San Marcos reached the Colorado River just east of Austin and extended to the missions in eastern Texas in 1716. With some variations, the Upper Road was the predominant route for the explorers and early settlers of eastern Texas. Even after use of the Upper Road decreased, it remained an alternate route to the east.

The Upper Road is not well defined from a point about 10 miles northeast of Austin to the San Gabriel River. From the San Gabriel River to the Trinity River, three variations are shown, one that can be partially identified from records and two other, more northerly routes that are shown as dashed lines on the route maps. Diaries,' chronicles, records, and onsite investigations do not provide sufficient information at this time to locate the dashed routes on the ground.

During the 1720s the road east from San Antonio shifted south to avoid conflicts with Indians. The Lower Road (circa 1730-90s) followed the San Antonio River downstream and turned east to cross the Guadalupe River near the present Cuero, Texas, the Colorado River just north of La Grange, and the Brazos at the mouth of the Little Brazos River, near Hearne. After the La Bahia presidio and mission were moved to their final sites near present Goliad in 1749, the road was extended to La Bahia, where it intersected with the Laredo Road after the founding of Laredo in 1755. The Lower Road joined with the northern route before their common crossing of the Trinity River. Most traffic, and especially official expeditions, followed the Lower Road between 1727 and the closing of Los Adaes in 1773. The Lower Road's significance lies in its being the primary route to Los Adaes over most of the 52-year period in which Los Adaes was the capital.
East of the Neches River, all three routes, the Upper Road (also known as El Camino Real de los Tejas), the Lower Road, and the Old San Antonio Road (which was sometimes called Camino de Arriba), are all on the same general alignment, with a few variations.

San Antonio to Natchitoches, Louisiana

After the presidio at Los Adaes was closed and the capital moved to San Antonio, Spanish residence and interest in eastern Texas declined but did not end. Both the Upper Road and the Lower Road to the east continued in use, with the Lower Road receiving more traffic. In the interest of straightening the route to East Texas, a new mail road was pioneered in 1795.

Many segments of the new road, which Anglo-American immigrants would later call the San Antonio Road, are the same as the Upper Road; other segments are the same as the Lower Road. In the area of New Braunfels, the San Antonio Road turns slightly south to avoid crossing the Comal and Blanco Rivers. It then headed straight for the Brazos crossing of the Lower Road, passing the Colorado River at Bastrop. The Old San Antonio Road follows the Upper Road from San Antonio to the New Braunfels area where it turns slightly south to cross the Guadalupe and San Marcos Rivers. It then heads through Bastrop to the Brazos River, where it crosses in the same area as the Lower Road.

The earlier and later roads coincide in some places in Louisiana and Texas; in others, the routes changed through time. The establishment of ferries also helped to change regional transportation patterns. In what is now Leon County, Texas, parts of El Camino Real were essentially abandoned when Robbins' Ferry (across the Trinity River) and other downstream ferries (on the Sabine River) were built (Texas Parks and Wildlife 1994, 13).

Summary

Together these segments joined to form the long corridor known as El Camino Real de los Tejas and the later immigration and trade route that is now identified as the Old San Antonio Road. El Camino Real and its variations, along with the Old San Antonio Road, contributed to the settlement and development of the Texas frontier during the Spanish, Mexican, and Anglo-American periods.

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