Kings Highway
N 31° 14.823 W 095° 34.013
15R E 255545 N 3459823
#30 Kings Highway DAR pink granite markers remains placed where Mr. V. N. Zively surveyed it to be in 1918 along the ancient El Camino Real, AKA: Kings Highway or Old San Antonio Road, southwest of Crockett, TX on SH-21.
Waymark Code: WMP1AC
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 06/08/2015
Views: 15
The trail known throughout Texas as the Kings Highway can be called the El Camino Real, El Camino Real de los Tejas, Old San Antonio Road (OSR), and Royal Road. The Kings Highway, or El Camino Real, is really a series of trails that meandered and shifted over time and as needs changed for the travelers. However, it stayed within a generally consistent direction and overall location. While other old mission trails in other states are also referred to as El Camino Reals, this marker is in the context of the path connecting Mexico City to what is now Natchitoches, Louisiana. Within Texas, a few other labels are sometimes used when referencing the El Camino Real, such as the San Antonio to Nacogdoches Road; or, from during the Civil War era, the Camino Arriba.
The DAR set pink granite markers along a major portion of the El Camino Real de los Tejas in 1918. Many still exist today, but some of these are still visible along State Highway 21 and the State Highway OSR which are both documented as covering large portions of the El Camino Real de los Tejas trails. The Texas legislature declared the Old San Antonio Road as a Texas historical trail. This marker is one I found that was not listed in Texas Historical Commission atlas in any of the counties from Caldwell county to Nacogdoches County. There are more of these markers still extant along SH 21 and the OSR, they just may not have been recorded and numbered in the THC atlas.
Although this one does not yet have a listing with THC, it is located about 6 to 8 miles down SH 21 after it splits off from SH 7 on the western edge of Crockett, TX. It is set in a slab of concrete close to a barbed wire fence used as a property boundary. It is found about half way between the intersections of SH 21 with CR3054 and with CR 3060.
Surprisingly, another sister marker is found just a bit farther northeast, probably about 5 miles from this one, since the DAR spaced the markers five miles apart. It is also one of the DAR/State of Texas sister markers of 1918, but has did have THC atlas number of #15391 assigned. It is waymark WMPOJN.
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