DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna do it justice. Now, most trails through this part of Texas got worn down by cattle drives or wagon wheels or sheer desperation. But the one we're rollin' over right now — or close enough to feel it — got started by a man on a mission.
Several missions, actually. In the year 1683, Lieutenant General Juan Dominguez de Mendoza set out from a point twelve miles below El Paso with a party of thirty-five souls and enough ambition to fill the whole Pecos Plains. And that's exactly where they were headed.
Mendoza's purpose — and the marker lays this out plain — was threefold. Explore the Pecos Plains. Obtain pearls from Texas rivers.
And Christianize the Jumano Indians. Three goals, one expedition, thirty-five people, and a whole lot of unknown country stretching out ahead of them. The party moved first southeast, then swung northeast into Texas, crossin' what would eventually become Upton County.
The very ground you might be lookin' at right now. They pushed on through the winter of 1683 into 1684, and here's where the story gets genuinely remarkable — they found pearls. Near present-day San Angelo, they found many pearls in the Texas rivers.
The marker doesn't embellish that. It doesn't need to. And if that wasn't enough, at the confluence of the Concho and Colorado rivers, Mendoza's party founded San Clemente Mission.
Thirty-five people, in the middle of an unexplored plains crossing, and they built something meant to last. Now here's the wry little twist that history tucked into this story. Two centuries passed.
The mission faded. The trail went quiet. And then — almost like the land remembered — part of Mendoza's route was taken up again by the Goodnight-Loving cattle trail.
Different century, different purpose, different kind of drive entirely. But the same ground, roughly the same path through this wide-open country. Some routes, it turns out, just make sense.
Juan Dominguez de Mendoza figured that out in 1683, and the cattle drovers figured it out all over again. The land has a long memory out here in Upton County. Longer than any of us passing through.
What the marker says
Route taken, 1683-1684, by the party of Lt. Gen. Juan Dominguez de Mendoza, whose purpose was to explore the Pecos Plains, obtain pearls from Texas rivers, and Christianize the Jumano Indians. Starting 12 miles below El Paso, the party of 35 traveled first southeast, then northeast into Texas, Crossing future Upton County. They found many pearls near present San Angelo; and at the confluence of the Concho and Colorado rivers, they founded San Clemente Mission. Two centuries later, part of Mendoza's route was taken by the Goodnight-Loving cattle trail. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, 1967.