Presidio del Norte

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to honor every word. Way out in Presidio County, where the land itself seems old enough to remember things, you're standing near what was once Presidio del Norte de la Junta. And that story reaches back a good deal further than most folks might expect.

Let's start at the beginning, or close to it. In 1683 and 1684, Don Juan Dominguez de Mendoza and a Franciscan friar named Padre Fray Nicolas Lopez of the Order of Friars Minor came through this country and established a collection of missions right here in this vicinity. Six of them.

San Antonio de los Puliques. San Francisco de los Julimes. Santa Maria la Redonda.

San Pedro Alcantara. El Apostol Santiago. And San Cristobal.

Six missions, out here at the edge of what must have felt like the known world. Those Franciscan missionaries maintained this work for the Christianizing and the civilizing (the marker's own words) of the Apache, the Natages, the Faraones, the Puliques, the Julimes, the Jumanos, the Zumas, and other Indian tribes of the region. That is a lot of nations, a lot of peoples, converging right here on this stretch of Texas earth.

Then, in 1746, the whole enterprise came under the administration and control of the custodia of New Mexico. And then, roughly three-quarters of a century later, in 1759 and 1760, Captain Alonzo Rubin de Celis established the presidio itself: Presidio del Norte de la Junta. A military post, a name, a place staked into the ground.

And here's the thing that always gets me about these old Texas stories: that name never fully let go. The marker says it plain: the name of the post was retained in part by the present town and the present county. Presidio.

You're in it right now. Some names earn their staying power over a long stretch of time, and this one had nearly three centuries of history backing it up before anyone thought to put a marker here.

What the marker says

Proximate site of Presidio del Norte de la Junta established by Captain Alonzo Rubin de Celis in 1759-1760. Name of post retained in part by the present town and county. In this vicinity the missions of San Antonio de los Puliques, San Francisco de Los Julimes, Santa Maria la Redonda, San Pedro Alcantara, El Apostol Santiago, San Cristobal. Were first established in 1683-1684 by Don Juan Dominguez de Mendoza and Padre Fray Nicolas Lopez O. F. M. Maintained by Franciscan missionaries for the Christianizing and the civilizing of the Apache, Natages, Faraones, Puliques, Julimes, Jumanos, Zumas and other Indian tribes. Administered and controlled in 1746 by the custodia of New Mexico, 1836-1936.