DUANE
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Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say, and friend, this one goes back a long way. Let's start at the beginning. Spaniards first explored this area and gave it a name back in 1691.
That's the opening line of a very long story. But the real chapter, the one that changes everything, begins in the spring of 1718. Between May 1st and May 5th of that year, colonial settlement took hold right here, with the founding of the Franciscan Mission San Antonio de Valero.
You may know that mission by another name. A name that came later. A name with a little more weight to it.
The Alamo. Near that mission stood the presidio San Antonio de Bexar, and that name was no accident. It honored one of the great heroes of Spain, the Duc de Bexar, brother to the Viceroy of New Spain himself.
That's the kind of naming that tells you people expected this place to matter. And it did. By 1731, the settlement was renamed San Fernando de Bexar, and in that same year it became a municipality.
Not just any municipality. The first municipality in all of Texas. The first.
Every town that came after owes something to that moment. But here's the thing about names and places with real character. The name San Antonio never really let go.
People kept using it. Time kept using it. And today it is San Antonio, seat of the county of Bexar, just as it has always quietly insisted on being.
Now consider what this city has lived through. In its lifetime it has given allegiance to nine governments. Nine.
Flags have come and gone over these rooftops and these river bends, and San Antonio has outlasted every one of them. And from 1772 to 1824, it served as the provincial and territorial capitol of Texas. The center of things.
The place where decisions were made. Fast forward to 1968. The city is celebrating two hundred and fifty years since that founding week in May of 1718, and it does so in a fashion befitting a city that has always known how to hold a crowd.
HemisFair '68, a World's Fair, opens right here on April 6th and runs through October 6th, 1968. The theme: the confluence of civilizations in the Americas. Not a small theme.
Not a modest one. Because the fair originated as a tribute to the diverse peoples who have occupied the western hemisphere from pre-Columbian times. The Indians who were the first known inhabitants.
The proud Spanish conquerors and devout padres. The pioneering American settlers. The immigrants who arrived from many different lands, carrying everything they had.
All of them, layered into this one place, over two hundred and fifty years of becoming. San Antonio didn't just survive nine governments and three centuries. It kept every thread, wove them together, and then threw a World's Fair about it.
That's not a city that forgets where it came from. That's a city that made a point of remembering.
What the marker says
Area was first explored and named by Spaniards in 1691. Colonial settlement began here May 1-5, 1718, with founding of Franciscan Missions San Antonio De Valero (later known as "The Alamo"). In Vicinity of the mission was the presidio San Antonio De Bexar, named for one of the great heroes of Spain, the Duc De Bexar, brother of the Viceroy of New Spain. The place was was renamed San Fernando De Bexar, 1731, when it became a municipality- the first in all of Texas. But the name "San Antonio" persisted. Today it is San Antonio in the county of Bexar. In its lifetime it has give allegiance to nine governments, and from 1772 to 1824 it served as the provincial and territorial capitol of Texas. Hemisfair '68- a World's fair held here April 6 to October 6, 1968, on the 250th anniversary of the birth of the city of San Antonio- had as its theme "the confluence of civilzations in the Americans". It orginated as a tribute to the diverse peoples who have occupied the western hemisphere from pre-columbian times: Indians who were the first known inhabitatns; proud spanish conquerors and devout padres; the pioneering american settlers; and the immigrants from many different lands.