DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm just along for the ride. El Camino Real. A thousand miles of road.
Let that sink in for a moment — a thousand miles, stretching from Saltillo, Mexico, all the way to what is now Louisiana. They called it the Great Thoroughfare of pioneer Texas, and friend, it earned that name. Before there were wagons on it, there were buffalo.
Before the buffalo, there were ancient Indian trails worn into the earth by generations of feet. That road was old before anybody thought to put a name on it. The oldest marked portion carried a name of its own — the Trail of the Padres — and it was blazed in 1691, under a man named Domingo Teran de los Rios, the first Governor of Texas.
That stretch connected Monclova, then the capital of the province, to the Spanish missions of East Texas, with San Antonio sitting in the middle as the military nerve center of the whole region. Major stop. You better believe it.
Now over the centuries — and we are talking centuries — this road saw everything. Explorers came through. Traders.
Smugglers. Armed men. Ordinary civilians just trying to get somewhere.
El Camino Real did not discriminate. It carried whoever had the nerve to walk it. Then in 1820, a man named Moses Austin traveled it all the way to San Antonio to request a land grant from Spanish officials.
The colonizing venture he started would later bring thousands of Anglo-Americans over that same road to help settle Texas. Thousands. Over the same ruts.
The same dust. By 1915, the Texas Legislature decided this road deserved to be found again — officially — and appropriated five thousand dollars to survey and mark the route. The Daughters of the American Revolution and other patriotic groups sponsored and endorsed the project, and a man named V.N.
Zivley was commissioned to make the survey. Three years later, in 1918, the state and the D.A.R. placed granite markers approximately every five miles along the Texas section of the road. Every five miles, a piece of stone saying: this mattered.
And today, if you are out here on State 21 or one of the other modern highways that follow the original route, well — you are driving it right now. A thousand-mile road that started with buffalo and ended up with a highway. El Camino Real.
The Royal Road. Still going.
What the marker says
Great thoroughfare of pioneer Texas, stretching 1,000 miles from Saltillo, Mexico, to present Louisiana. The general route followed ancient Indian and buffalo trails, but the oldest marked portion, known as "Trail of the Padres", was blazed in 1691 under Domingo Teran de los Rios, first Governor of Texas. This part joined Monclova, then capital of the province, to the Spanish missions of East Texas. San Antonio, military nerve center of the region, was a major stop. Over the centuries, explorers, traders, smugglers, armed men, and civilians traversed this road. In 1820 Moses Austin traveled it to San Antonio to request a land grant from Spanish officials. The colonizing venture he started later brought thousands of Anglo-Americans over the road to help settle Texas. In 1915 the Texas Legislature appropriated $5,000 to survey and mark the route. The Daughters of the American Revolution and other patriotic groups sponsored and endorsed the project, and V.N. Zivley was commissioned to make the survey. In 1918 the state and D.A.R. placed granite markers approximately every five miles along the Texas section of the road. Today many modern highways, particularly State 21, follow the original route of El Camino Real.