El Camino Real -- DAR Marker No. 22 & Site of Mission San Francisco, SH 21 west of Alto TX
N 31° 36.302 W 095° 08.357
15R E 297049 N 3498644
No. 22 of 128 pink granite El Camino Real markers placed by the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1918 stands with a 1936 Texas Centennial Mission marker along the route of the El Camino Real/SH 21 near Cherokee County Road 2807
Waymark Code: WMXGVT
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 01/11/2018
Views: 1
One of the series of El Camino Real granite markers erected as part of a historic preservation project of the Texas Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the State of Texas, undertaken to survey and mark the historic route of the Old San Antonio Road from Louisiana to the Rio Grande. The DAR placed pink granite makers along the road, each one roughly the same, about 5 miles apart, for the length of the road in Texas.
This marker is located at along the SH 21 near Cherokee County Road 2807.
The DAR marker reads as follows:
"KING'S HIGHWAY
CAMINO REAL
Old San Antonio Road
Marked by the
Daughters of the
American Revolution
and the State of Texas
A. D. 1918"
The marker next to it preserves the site of the Mission San Francisco, an early Spanish Mission in East Texas, and reads as follows:
"Site of the Mission San Francisco de los Tejas
Originally established as Mission San Francisco de los Tejas in 1690 by Franciscan missionaries for the purpose of Christianizing and civilizing the Neches and other Indians of the region
Reestablished in 1716
Abandoned temporarily due to French incursion from Louisiana in 1719
Relocated here as San Francisco de los Neches by the Marquis de Aguayo in 1721
Removed to the Colorado River in 1730
Permanently located on the San Antonio River in 1731 and there known as San Francisco de la Espada
Erected by the State of Texas
1936"
From the Texas Historical Commission: (
visit link)
"History of State of Texas Historical Markers
The State of Texas first commemorated a historical site in 1856 by contributing to marking graves at the San Jacinto battleground. In 1858, the Legislature bought an existing Alamo monument, built in 1841 with stones gathered from the battle site. William Nangle and Joseph Cox of San Antonio designed the ten-foot high pyramid on a square pedestal to be portable, and it traveled to Houston, New Orleans and Austin. After the state acquired the monument it was moved to the Capitol, and ultimately destroyed in the 1881 fire that razed that building.
. . .
From 1915-18, the State of Texas and the Daughters of the American Revolution together placed 123 pink granite markers about every five miles along the King’s Highway, also known as Camino Real or Old San Antonio Road, the trail blazed in 1690 by Alonso de Leon. Surveyor V. N. Zively mapped the route through south, central and east Texas. Most of these markers are still intact."