In the 1930s, Fort Stockton had three US highways converging just east of its busy downtown: The US 290, the US 67, and the US 285. (Source: Old Highway Maps section of (
visit link) ). Travelers on the OST passed by this very spot as they continued west on the OST through Fort Stockton.
The Comanche Motel and RV Park is an easily-spotted OST-era relic along the old US 290/I-10 Business Loop on the east side of Fort Stockton. The fun and funky Indian-themed paint job and whitewashed adobe-style looks like something you'd find along Route 66 in Albuquerque NM. This motel clearly dates from the 1930s, when we are sure it was one of the nicest places to stay along the OST between San Antonio and El Paso.
Today, it is still a motel offering daily and weekly rentals, and also advertises itself online as a hostel. The RV park behind the motel is really a dirt parking lot.
The RV Park reviews are not kind, but the motel reviews are BRUTAL, so our recommendation is to enjoy the 1930s tourist court art and funky look of the buildings here, but do not try and have an OST experience by staying here. This would have been a great place in the 1930s, but in the 21st century I will have to try and un-see bedbug photos.
The history of the Old Spanish Trail is as varied as the areas it crosses on its journey from Jacksonville FL to San Diego CA. In Texas, the OST has had many routes, but by 1921 a predominantly southern route from Orange to San Antonio to El Paso had been formalized. Source: The Development of Highways in Texas:
A Historic Context of the Bankhead Highway and Other Historic Named Highways, but the Texas Historical Commission
(
visit link)
"The Old Spanish Trail largely overlapped with the “Southern National Highway,” as the route was named by the Texas Highway Commission in 1917. At that time, the agency formally incorporated the roadway as SH 3 in the new state highway system. (See Figure 183.) However, the route marked by the Old Spanish Trail Association included a wideranging variety of alignments other than SH 3; the most notable was the SH 27 alignments travelling through Kerrville, Sonora, and Junction en route to Fort Stockton.
Regardless of the name or designation used, the route quickly assumed a leading role in the state’s emerging highway system, in part, because it travelled to not only some of the state’s most important nodes of military installations (San Antonio) and industrial centers (the oil refineries in Houston and the Gold Triangle areas of Beaumont, Port Arthur, and Orange), but also some of the state’s best known tourist destinations, parks, and recreational centers, such as the Alamo and Balmorrhea State Park."
By 1926, when the US Federal Highway System converted the old names Auto Tour Routes into a numbered system of US Highways, the OST was well established. At this time, parts of the OST in Texas were co-designated US 90, US 90Alt, US 87, US 80 and US 290.
The OST in Fort Stockton was part of the US 290 alignment that terminated northwest of Balmorhea at US 80 (The Bankhead Highway).