King's Highway - Camino Real - Old San Antonio Road
New Braunfels, Comal County, Texas
Marker Inscription
King's Highway - Camino Real - Old San Antonio Road. Marked by the Daughters of the American Revolution and the State of Texas A.D. 1918
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
The King's Highway — El Camino Real, later called the Old San Antonio Road — was the great overland artery laid out under Spanish rule to link the missions and presidios of Texas with the interior of New Spain. For generations it carried soldiers, priests, traders, and eventually Anglo colonists across the Texas frontier. In 1918 the Daughters of the American Revolution and the State of Texas set a chain of markers along its route to keep the old road from being forgotten.
Why it matters
This route stitched together the Spanish, Mexican, and early Texan chapters of the region's history, making it one of the oldest and most important corridors of travel in the American Southwest.
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Related people
- · Daughters of the American Revolution
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
King's Highway - Camino Real - Old San Antonio Road
San Marcos, TX
This marker stands along the old King's Highway, or El Camino Real, the Spanish colonial road that became known as the Old San Antonio Road. Blazed to connect Texas missions and presidios with the heart of New Spain, it served for well over a century as a lifeline of travel and settlement. In 1918 the Daughters of the American Revolution and the State of Texas placed markers like this one to trace its historic path.
Original Gruene Mercantile
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Henry D. Gruene opened this store in 1878 to supply the families who worked his cotton farm, and it quickly became the hub of the little community. Beyond groceries, clothing, and farm tools, it served as a stage stop, a post office, and even an outlet for the Green River whiskey from Gruene's distillery. In 1904 the original wooden building was moved aside to make way for a new brick mercantile.
Wonder Cave
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Formed within the Balcones Fault by ancient earth movements, Wonder Cave sits in country long traveled by Native peoples and Spanish priests along the old Camino Real, with local legend adding tales of 1820s bandits and buried loot. Anglo-Texan settlers rediscovered it in 1893 when a water-well drill plunged 158 feet into the hollow beneath their home. By about 1900 it had become the state's first commercially opened cave, drawing visitors on candlelit tours.
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