El Camino Real
Normangee, Leon County, Texas
Marker Inscription
First blazed in 1691 by Captain Don domingo Teran De Los Rios first provincial governor of Texas. In an expedition officially directed by Father Fray damian Massanet O-F-M Apostolic Missionary and explorer in Texas. the general route was northeast from the Rio Grande to the San Antonio River thence across the Guadalupe, San Marcos, Colorado, Brazos, and Trinity Rivers to the missions in east Texas. Other expeditions taking the same route: Espinosa Olivares Aquirre in 1709, St. Denis in 1714, Ramon in 1716, Alarcon in 1718, marquis of Aguayo in 1720, Moses Austin in 1820. The Republic of Texas Officially made this road a boundary between a number of empresarial land grants. Normangee - Home of the Old San Antonio Road Association. Erected by the State of Texas 1936
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
The Camino Real—the Old San Antonio Road—was first blazed in 1691 by Domingo Terán de los Ríos, first provincial governor of Texas, guiding a mission expedition with Father Damián Massanet from the Rio Grande across a chain of rivers to the missions of East Texas. Generations of explorers, soldiers, and settlers followed the same route, among them Moses Austin in 1820, and the Republic of Texas later made the road a boundary for its land grants. This 1936 centennial marker honors that ancient highway of empires.
Why it matters
The Camino Real is one of the oldest and most important overland routes in North America, the artery along which Spanish colonization—and later Anglo settlement—reached Texas.
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Related people
- · Domingo Terán de los Ríos
- · Damián Massanet
- · Moses Austin
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Rogers Prairie
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