El Camino Real - Kimmswick, MO
Posted by: Wampa-One
N 38° 21.971 W 090° 21.956
15S E 730128 N 4249729
Red granite marker erected in 1917 by the Daughters of the American Revolution to mark the route of El Camino Real (Spanish for The King's Highway)
Waymark Code: WM500C
Location: Missouri, United States
Date Posted: 10/20/2008
Views: 29
In the late 1700s the Spanish used the inland trails of the Native Americans. The route from New Madrid and Ste. Genevieve to St. Louis was called the route El Camino Real (The Royal Road.) This oldest road in Missouri passed near what would become Kimmswick. The Missouri Daughters of the American Revolution erected a red granite boulder in 1917 to mark the route. On Sunday October 19th, 2008 a Rededication ceremony was held to commemorate the move of the El Camino Real Marker to the Jefferson Square Park location.
~ from Historic Kimmswick website
El Camino Real (Spanish for The Royal Road or The King's Highway) was the name of a series of pre-automobile highways linking the various New World colonies of Spain. Kings Highway, the name for the trail following the Mississippi River northward from New Orleans, Louisiana, through Sikeston, Cape Girardeau, and St. Louis, Missouri. The modern route following this trail was numbered as U.S. Highway 61 in 1926. Present-day streets along the route in the three Missouri cities are named Kingshighway.
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The history of El Camino Real is also mentioned in the American Guide Series, Missouri: A Guide to the 'Show Me' State, 1941 (page 98)