(1) El Camino Real & (2) Chisholm Trail -- (1) DAR Marker No. 78 & (2) Trail Marker, SH 46 at Old Nacogdoches Rd, New Braunfels TX
N 29° 41.726 W 098° 06.827
14R E 585735 N 3285365
No. 78 of 128 granite (1) El Camino Real markers placed by the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1918 stands at Nacogdoches Ave and S Seguin Ave/SH46 in New Braunfels, also the path of the (2) Chisholm Cattle Drive Trail from the 1870s-1880s
Waymark Code: WMXPAH
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 02/07/2018
Views: 5
At this spot, you can walk in the footsteps of (1) Conquistadors on the El Camino Real and (2) Cowboys on the Chisholm Trail
This pink granite DAR marker was placed in 1918 as a statewide project by the Daughters of the American Revolution to mark the route of the Old San Antonio Road.
The marker is located at the intersection of Nacogdoches Ave and S Seguin Ave/SH46 in New Braunfels.
The 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 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."
This particular spot is ALSO the fording point over the Guadalupe River on the Chisholm Cattle Drive Trail of the 1870s.
The Texas Historical Commission has posted a PDF of the tourism brochure on traveling the Chisholm Trail through Texas: (
visit link)
"In the decades following the Civil War, more than 6 million cattle—up to 10 million by some accounts—were herded out of Texas in one of the greatest migrations of animals ever known. These 19th-century cattle drives laid the foundation for Texas’ wildly successful cattle industry and helped elevate the state out of post-Civil War despair and poverty. Today, our search for an American identity often leads us back to the vision of the rugged and independent men and women of the cattle drive era.
Although a number of cattle drive routes existed during this period,none captured the popular imagination like the one we know today as the Chisholm Trail. Through songs, stories, and mythical tales, the Chisholm Trail has become a vital feature of American identity.
. . .
25. New Braunfels
Pressing north past San Antonio, longhorns on the Chisholm Trail journeyed toward New Braunfels and Austin on a route that roughly parallels I-35 today. On both the Chisholm Trail and El Camino Real de los Tejas (the Spanish Royal Road) before that, the Guadalupe River in New Braunfels served as an important water stop and river crossing for weary travelers. The best views of the crossing are upstream from the Faust Street Bridge, built in 1887. When drovers began trailing cattle through New Braunfels in the 1860s, the town’s German artisans provided just about anything they’d need—from reliable wagons to sturdy saddles. The Sophienburg Museum displays the storefronts and blacksmith tools of the cattle trail era."