La Bahia Road
Brenham, Washington County, Texas
Marker Inscription
One of the first overland routes used by European explorers of Texas, La Bahia Road was originally an east-west Indian trail in southeastern Texas and Louisiana. Earlier it may have been an animal trail. Although not as famous, or long, as El Camino Real (the San Antonio Road), La Bahia is probably older and it figured quite importantly in the movement of explorers, soldiers, traders, and settlers across Texas. Possibly the first European to set foot on the road was La Salle, who explored for France in this area during 1685-87. Almost certainly it was traveled by the Spaniard Alonso De Leon, who searched for the French intruders in 1689. From 1812 on, the trail and its westernmost town, La Bahia (now Goliad), served agents of both war and peace. The Gutierrez-Magee Expedition, part of Mexico's revolt against Spain, used the road in 1812-13. In 1821 the first Anglo-American colonists in Texas, the vanguard of the "Old 300", came down La Bahia into this area. During the 1836 Texas Revolution, the road found use by troops of the Texan army; Col. James Fannin and his 400 men were massacred near the road--in Goliad. In the 20th century, La Bahia's route helped surveyors map modern Texas highways.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
La Bahia Road began as an east-west Indian trail—perhaps older still an animal path—crossing southeastern Texas and Louisiana, and grew into one of the earliest overland routes European explorers used in Texas. La Salle likely walked it in the 1680s, the Spaniard Alonso De León followed in 1689, and over the next century and a half it carried the Gutiérrez-Magee expedition, the "Old 300" colonists of 1821, and troops of the 1836 Revolution, near which Fannin's men were massacred at Goliad. In the twentieth century its path helped guide the surveyors who mapped modern Texas highways.
Why it matters
The road is a living palimpsest of Texas history, showing how Indigenous trails became the arteries along which empires, colonists, and armies—and finally modern highways—moved across the land.
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Related people
- · La Salle
- · Alonso De León
- · James Fannin
Related events
- · Gutiérrez-Magee Expedition
- · Old 300 colonization
- · Goliad Massacre
Themes & tags
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