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El Camino Real de los Tejas Trail

 

Robertson County Trail Summation

In  the 1680s when the Spanish began to travel into Texas, they followed  already existing networks of American Indian trails. Domingo Teran de los Rios, first governor of the province of the Tejas, came in 1691 to  establish missions among the Tejas Indians of East Texas and to build  presidios or military garrisons against French encroachment. By the 19th  century these same trails, now called El Camino Real, or The Royal  Road, carried Anglo immigrants from the U.S. to settle in Texas.

To  track this trail, the Texas Legislature in 1915 commissioned  professional surveyor V.N. Zively to survey and mark the route of the  so-called Old San Antonio Road (OSR). Today familiar pink granite  markers with the lettering, "EL CAMINO REAL", salute travelers along the  Zively route that marks the boundary between Robertson County and its  southern neighbor, Brazos County.

Then,  to recognize the 300th anniversary of the state's most significant  trans-Texas road, the State Legislature in 1991 directed TxDOT "to  identify the present disposition of the historic trail," to develop a  preservation plan for management of the OSR, and then to prepare a  report. In summary, the OSR project staff found that the "Old San  Antonio Road", contrary to popular perception, consisted not of a single  route, but actually included no less than five different main routes  meandering at various times in a wide corridor across Texas.

To  identify these roads in the corridor through Robertson County the  "post-1790 segment between San Antonio and Nacogdoches"* is designated  the Camino Arriba or signed "OSR" while the 100-year older road which  crossed the Brazos River at Burnitt Shoals near FM 979 and passed from  roughly Calvert to Franklin to the Navasota River is referred to as  Camino de los Tejas.

From  the early Spanish crossing at Burnitt Shoals into Robertson County, the  1991 TxDOT report says that the trail ". . . follows State Highway 6 to  Calvert and from there along FM 1644 east to Franklin. It continues  along US 79 eastward to the Missouri Pacific Railroad at Alum Creek,  crossing the Navasota River where the current railroad bridge is  located."* (p. 188) The Robertson County Carnegie Library sits at the  junction of FM1644 and US 79.

Some  individuals point to evidence of the trail continuing down FM 979 from  Calvert to cross the Navasota instead at Sycamore Crossing or Grayson  Crossing into Leon County. This latter route would have offered a  flatter passage without creeks to cross through the prairie land and  without the encumbrance of the Post Oak Savannah. Not only did old maps  from the Spanish to Zebulon Pike acknowledge a route very similar to  today's FM979, the first land grants all lined up with this road.

Ultimately,  the current study has identified at least five variants of El Camino  Real as it passes from the Rio Grande into East Texas. "At any given  time," reports TxDOT archeologist A. Joachim McGraw, "a single route was  employed by travelers and its choice depended on seasons, natural  conditions, and the presence of hostile Indians." Through partnerships  with local landowners, chambers of commerce, county historic  commissions, and elected officials, the National Park Service is working  towards eventually identifying all route segments and posting official  signage.

For more information, visit www.elcaminorealdelostejas.org and view the interactive map. Zoom in to follow the trail across Robertson County.

*A  Texas Legacy The Old San Antonio Road and the Caminos Reales, A Tricentennial History, 1691-1991 ; Edited by A. Joachim McGraw, John W.  Clark, Jr., and Elizabeth A. Robbins; Texas Department of  Transportation, January 1991.

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