DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the early roads to San Felipe, out in Austin County. Now settle in, because this is a story about mud — and ambition — and the kind of paths that a young Texas had to carve out of nothing before it could become anything at all. In the mid-1820s, when Stephen F.
Austin was founding the town of San Felipe, the only roads in the area were wagon ruts of beaten trails marked by notched trees. You read that right. You wanted to know where you were going, you looked for a tree somebody had taken a knife to.
That was the highway system. And yet — within a decade — that same village of San Felipe, one of the first Anglo settlements in Texas, had become a hub from which eight or more roads projected outward in every direction. Eight roads.
From notched trees to a wheel-spoke of trails reaching out across the land. Now, some of those were small, intra-colony routes, keeping the far corners of Austin's colony in conversation with one another. But the main trails reached all the way to major towns, or connected into what they called highways — roads like the San Antonio Road, known as El Camino Real.
One of the most important routes passing through San Felipe was the Atascosita Road. It connected Goliad with the United States, and it took its name from Atascosa — that's Spanish for boggy — a spring near Liberty that once served as its main terminus. Boggy.
They named a road after a bog. And if you've ever tried to travel a Texas road in January, you understand completely. Then there was the Gotier Trace, laid out about 1830 by a pioneer named James Gotier.
It joined the northern and southern parts of Austin's colony and was used for decades. And the San Felipe Road proper ran out to Harrisburg, hauling goods inland from the Gulf Coast. All of it — all of it — sounded grand on paper.
In practice? Dusty trails baking under the summer sun, and in winter, impassable quagmires, flooded by knee-deep water. The main thoroughfares and the back-country ruts alike, all of them swallowed by the same Texas mud come the cold months.
It wouldn't be until well into the twentieth century that Texas began to develop the highway system she has today. So the next time you glide down a smooth Texas highway and your biggest complaint is the construction cone slowing you down, just remember: somebody once navigated this same stretch of earth by looking for a notch in a tree and hoping the spring rains hadn't turned the whole thing into a swamp. Texas was always going somewhere.
Getting there, though — that took a while.
What the marker says
During the mid-1820s, when Stephen F. Austin was founding this town, the only roads in the area were wagon ruts of beaten trails marked by notched trees. Within a decade, however, the village of San Felipe, one of the first Anglo settlements in Texas, had become a hub from which 8 or more roads projected. Many of these were small, intra-colony routes, but the main trails extended to major towns or joined "highways", such as the San Antonio Road (El Camino Real). A main route which passed through San Felipe was the Atascosita Road, connecting Goliad with the United States. It took its name from Atascosa (Spanish for "boggy") Spring near Liberty, which once was its main terminus. The Gotier Trace, another travel artery, was laid out about 1830 by pioneer James Gotier. It joined the northern and southern parts of Austin's colony and was used for decades. The San Felipe Road proper, which ran to Harrisburg, transported goods inland from the Gulf Coast. Even the main thoroughfares, however, were dusty trails in the summer and impassable quagmires in the winter, often flooded by knee-deep water. Not until well into the 20th century did Texas begin to develp her present, outstanding highway system. (1969)