El Camino Real de los Tejas -- DAR Marker No. 23, SH 21 at Neches River - National Scenic Byways on Waymarking.com

This DAR marker is located along the SH 21 west of the Neches River in a roadside pullout, co-located with the Mission Santissimo Nombre de Maria marker.

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"

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.

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."

The El Camino Real de los Tejas has been designated a National Historic Trail through the states of Texas and New Mexico. (visit link)

"From the Rio Grande to the Red River Valley
Come on a journey that will carry you through 300 years of Louisiana and Texas frontier settlement and development on a Spanish colonial "royal road" that originally extended to Mexico City, Mexico.

You are about to travel 2,500 miles, from Mission San Juan Bautista Guerrero, Mexico to Fort St. Jean Baptiste Nachitoches Parish, Louisiana."

Program: Other Website: [Web Link] Official Name: El Camino Real de los Tejas

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Date Logged Log   12/30/2017 Benchmark Blasterz visited it