Cabeza Creek Crossing on the La Bahia-Bexar Road

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Cabeza Creek Crossing on the La Bahia-Bexar Road in Goliad County. Now, one mile northwest of where you're sitting right now, there's a creek crossing that has been doing quiet, important work for a very long time. The Cabeza Creek Crossing sits on a tributary of the San Antonio River, and it marks a spot on one of the most significant roads in all of Texas history.

The La Bahía-Bexar road. A segment of the old Camino Real itself, the road that connected Spanish territories all the way down to Mexico City. The land around that crossing once belonged to Rafael Antonio Manchola, who was no ordinary rancher.

He served as alcalde of Goliad and as a state deputy of Coahuila y Tejas. A man with standing in two worlds, and this crossing sat right on his property. The story of why people needed this road so badly goes back to 1749, when the Presidio La Bahía and the Mission Espíritu Santo relocated from the Guadalupe River area to somewhere nearby.

Suddenly you had residents who needed a trade route, and they made use of the road that was already there. By 1775, Captain Manuel Ramírez de la Piscina had charted it officially. By 1780, Governor Domingo Cabello y Robles had mapped it.

The road was getting attention from people who understood that knowing exactly where it ran was worth something. Then came the naturalists and the pioneers. Jean Louis Berlandier, a French-Swiss naturalist, noted an abandoned ranch on the eastern approach to the crossing.

It was the kind of detail only a careful observer would bother to record. And later, Spanish artifacts dating all the way back to 1790 were found right there at that spot. Stephen F.

Austin had also mapped the route by the mid-1830s, adding his name to a long list of people who understood what this road was worth. And what it was worth was considerable. Travelers used it.

Military personnel used it. Spanish, Mexican, and Anglo traders and ranchers all used it. The road went by different names over time, the Goliad-San Antonio road, the San Antonio road, but the work it did stayed the same.

It became a vital supply line connecting gulf ports all the way to Bexar, which is what folks called San Antonio. In the 1840s, German immigrants came down this very road. Some of them stopped right here in Goliad County and put down roots in communities like Weesache, Schroeder, and Ander.

Others crossed at Cabeza Creek and kept going northwest, carrying their lives with them toward whatever came next. But by the late 1800s, the railroads arrived, and the road and the crossing began to fall into disuse. The iron rails had no need for a creek ford in Goliad County.

The old path that soldiers and traders and immigrants had worn into the Texas earth just went quiet. Today, though, the crossing and the road are part of a national historic trail. They're still there, one mile to the northwest, reminding anyone willing to listen that the ground beneath Goliad has been carrying people and stories for a very, very long time.

What the marker says

The Cabeza Creek Crossing (1 mi. NW), a point on the San Antonio River tributary, is located on the La Bahía-Bexar road, a vital Texas transportation route. The crossing is on ranch property which belonged to Rafael Antonio Manchola, an alcalde of Goliad and state deputy of Coahuila y Tejas. The La Bahía-Bexar road, which was a segment of the Camino Real, connected Spanish territories to Mexico City. In 1749, the Presidio La Bahía and the Mission Espíritu Santo relocated nearby from the Guadalupe River area. The residents needed a trade route and made use of the road, charted by Capt. Manuel Ramírez de la Piscina in 1775 and mapped by Gov. Domingo Cabello y Robles in 1780. By mid-1830s, Stephen F. Austin had also mapped the route, as did French-Swiss naturalist Jean Louis Berlandier, who noted an abandoned ranch on the eastern approach to the crossing where Spanish artifacts dating to 1790 were later found. Through the years, the road and crossing were used by travelers, military personnel, and Spanish, Mexican and Anglo traders and ranchers. Later called the Goliad-San Antonio road and the San Antonio road, the route became a vital supply line between gulf ports and Bexar (San Antonio). During the 1840s, German immigrants traveled the road; some would settle in this county in communities such as Weesache, Schroeder and Ander, while others used the crossing and continued northwest. By the late 1800s, the road and crossing fell into disuse as railroads arrived and became a primary form of transportation. Today, the crossing and road are part of a national historic trail and continue to serve as a reminder of Goliad’s rich history. (2008)