DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. The full name alone ought to give you pause — Mission Nuestra Señora del Espíritu Santo de Zúñiga — and if you think that name traveled a long road just to reach your ears, friend, you ought to hear where the mission itself had to travel before it finally stopped moving. This is a story about a place that couldn't seem to stay put.
In 1722, the mission was first established at the site of La Salle's fort on Garcitas Creek, out in Victoria County, among the Coco, Cujanes, Karankawa, and other Indian tribes of the region. Now — pause on that a moment. The Franciscan friars chose La Salle's old fort as their starting point.
That is a location with a history all its own, and they planted this mission right on top of it. Bold, or stubborn, or maybe both. Then, just four years later, in 1726, the mission picked up and moved.
This time to Mission Valley, still in Victoria County, on the Guadalupe River, among the Jaranames and the Tamiques. A new river, a new people, a new attempt. But they weren't done yet.
In 1749, the mission moved again — this time to the present site, near Goliad, and it brought those same Indian neophytes along with it. Third location. The Franciscan friars were nothing if not persistent.
The marker is plain-spoken about what they were up against — they attempted to civilize and Christianize even the cannibalistic Indians of the region. Those are the marker's own words, and they tell you something about how daunting the friars considered their task. Decades passed.
The mission endured. And then, in 1794, it was secularized — the chapter closed, the mission's religious work formally ended. Three locations, three-quarters of a century of labor, and the Franciscans finally put down their burden at Goliad.
That mission moved twice before most of us have managed to move once, and it still outlasted plenty of things that never moved at all.
What the marker says
First established at the site of La Salle's fort on Garcitas Creek, Victoria County, among the Coco, Cujanes, Karankawa and other Indian tribes in 1722. Moved to Mission Valley, Victoria County, on the Guadalupe River among the Jaranames and Tamiques in 1726. Located on the present site in 1749 for the same Indian neophytes. Secularized in 1794. Here Franciscan friars attempted to civilize and Christianize even the cannibalistic Indians of the region. (Near Goliad)