San Clemente Mission
Ballinger, Runnels County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The first mission known to have been established in Texas east of the Pecos River, San Clemente was a hastily built, two-room structure located on a hill about 17 miles south of present Ballinger. (Some historians place the site farther south, near Junction.) Although earlier than the great Spanish mission movement, this was one of the first (1684) in Texas and was founded by Juan Dominguez de Mendoza and Fray Nicolas Lopez. Named for the San Clemente River (actually the Colorado), the mission was founded at the request of the Jumano Indians, who desired Christianity and the friendship of the Spanish. The buildings was probably constructed of logs, its lower story serving as a chapel and its upper story as a lookout post. Though they stayed only from March 15 to May 1, awaiting envoys from 48 tribes (bands), the Spaniards baptized many of their several thousand Indian allies. Finally, being attacked by hostile Apaches, Mendoza returned with his men to El Paso six months after he had left. Although Mendoza did not know it, French explorer La Salle had landed on the Gulf Coast, 1684. This fact, plus Mendoza's report of seeing a French flag among the Indians quickly led to other Spanish expeditions being sent to chart the Texas wilderness.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In 1684, at the request of the Jumano Indians who sought Christianity and Spanish friendship, Juan Dominguez de Mendoza and Fray Nicolas Lopez established San Clemente, the first known mission in Texas east of the Pecos. The hastily built two-story structure served as chapel below and lookout above while the Spaniards awaited envoys from dozens of tribes and baptized many of their Native allies. After only weeks, Apache attacks forced Mendoza's retreat to El Paso, and his report of a French flag among the Indians—La Salle had just landed on the Gulf coast—helped spur Spain's race to secure the Texas wilderness.
Why it matters
San Clemente marks an early collision of Spanish, French, and Native ambitions on the Texas frontier, a fleeting mission whose intelligence about La Salle helped set off the contest for control of the region.
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Related people
- · Juan Dominguez de Mendoza
- · Fray Nicolas Lopez
- · La Salle
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
San Clemente Mission (Site Located 10 Miles Southeast)
Runnels County, TX
In the 1680s, Spanish expeditions pushed northeast from the Rio Grande onto the rolling plains of central Texas, seeking to trade with and convert the Jumano and neighboring peoples. San Clemente was a rough, two-room mission thrown up during one such entrada — the earliest known mission planted in Texas beyond the Pecos. Its exact location is still debated, a reminder of how faint the documentary trail of these short-lived frontier outposts can be.
Site of Pickettville
Ballinger, TX
Founded in 1862, Pickettville was the first civilian settlement in Runnels County, named for the picket houses and corrals its frontier families built. Ranching households — the Guests, the Wylie brothers and their hands, the Gordons, and the Coffeys — banded together for protection amid the Indian raids that intensified during the Civil War. In 1866 they drove their cattle off to open range, and their old picket corrals later held the herds of trail drivers passing through.
Largest Pictograph Site in Texas
Paint Rock, TX
Along a half-mile of limestone bluff near Paint Rock, roughly 1,500 painted images record centuries of Native life, made by many different peoples across widely separated eras. It is the most extensive pictograph site in Texas, a gallery of the nomadic tribes who moved through this country long before European settlement. The paintings preserve stories, symbols, and events in the only medium their makers left behind.
Site of Mission San Clemente
Millersview vicinity, TX
On March 16, 1684, the Spanish expedition led by Juan Domínguez de Mendoza paused at the junction of the Concho and Colorado rivers to establish Mission San Clemente, meant to convert and "civilize" the Native peoples of the region. Far out on the edge of Spain's northern frontier, the mission was a fleeting outpost of a colonial enterprise that reached deep into what would become West Texas. Only its remembered site survives.