DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Pinta Trail in Kendall County. Now, before there were highways, before there were rail lines, before there was even a Texas to speak of, the land itself had already drawn the map. The Hill Country doesn't give up its secrets easy, but water will find a way through limestone every time — and where water goes, people follow.
That's the story of the Pinta Trail. The trail's full name was the Camino Pinta, and it was a natural pathway through the Hill Country, used first by Native Americans and later connecting to Spanish settlements to the southeast. Stretched about a hundred and eighty miles northwest, from San Antonio all the way up to the Spanish presidio at Menard — that presidio built back in the 1750s.
So by the time Europeans started making use of this road, the road had already been a road for a good long while. Then came the 1780s, and a pathfinder by the name of José Mares worked this stretch into a shorter route between Santa Fe and San Antonio. He didn't build anything.
He just recognized what the land had already arranged. Now, the name itself — Pinta — that's where it gets interesting. Maps, surveys, contemporary accounts, they all show variations of the word, and every one of them is said to derive from the Spanish word pintar, meaning to paint.
Whether it was pinto ponies or the Piedra Pinta Mountains showing up on period maps, there were at least two explanations floating around even back then. The trail didn't leave one clean answer. That feels about right for a road this old.
By 1839, a man named John Coffee Hays — Jack, to those who knew him — surveyed the area where the Pinta Trail crosses the Guadalupe River and designated the route as the Paint Road. And once Texas achieved statehood, that became a consistent feature on the maps. The trail wasn't fading — it was getting written down.
In the 1840s, the German Adelsverein used it for access to new settlements near the Pedernales River. Naturalists Ferdinand Lindheimer and Ferdinand von Roemer both referenced the Pinta Trail during their excursions between 1845 and 1847. Then in 1847, a man named Nicolaus Zink settled right along that path and became the first pioneer in what would become the colony of Sisterdale.
The trail went through the center of Kendall County. East of Boerne, it crossed the southern boundary of George Wilkins Kendall's ranch, just west of Post Oak Creek. Use of the trail did diminish once new routes were established.
But before it faded from everyday travel, a landscape artist named Hermann Lungkwitz made sure it wasn't forgotten. In 1857 he painted Old Pinta Crossing on the Guadalupe — a document in oils of a road that had been carrying people through the Hill Country for longer than anyone could quite say. By connecting reliable water sources, good terrain, and emerging settlements, the Pinta Trail was, as the marker puts it, an important factor in the development of the Hill Country and Kendall County.
The land drew the map. Everybody else just followed.
What the marker says
The Pinta Trail (Camino Pinta) was a natural pathway through the Hill Country, utilized by Native Americans and later linking to Spanish settlements to the southeast. The path extended about 180 miles northwest from San Antonio to the 1750s Spanish presidio at Menard. In the 1780s, pathfinder José Mares incorporated the link into a shorter route between Santa Fe and San Antonio. Maps, surveys and contemporary accounts include many variations of Pinta, all said to derive from the Spanish word pintar (to paint). Pinto ponies or the Piedra Pinta Mountains on period maps are two possible explanations. In 1839, John (Jack) Coffee Hays surveyed the area where the Pinta Trail crosses the Guadalupe River, designating the route as Paint Road. It became a consistent map feature soon after Texas statehood. In the 1840s, the German Adelsverein utilized the trail for access to its new settlements near the Pedernales River. Naturalists Ferdinand Lindheimer and Ferdinand von Roemer referenced the Pinta Trail in their 1845-47 excursions. Nicolaus Zink settled along the path in 1847, becoming the first pioneer in the future colony of Sisterdale. The trail's use diminished when new routes were established. Landscape artist Hermann Lungkwitz documented the historic road in his painting Old Pinta Crossing on the Guadalupe (1857). The trail went through the center of Kendall County. East of Boerne, it crossed the southern boundary of George Wilkins Kendall's ranch west of Post Oak Creek. The selection of the Pinta Trail as an ancient pathway stood the test of time. By connecting reliable water sources, good terrain and emerging settlements, the trail was an important factor in the development of the Hill Country and Kendall County. (2013)