San Felipe Springs
Del Rio, Val Verde County, Texas
Marker Inscription
San Felipe Springs, named by 17th century Spanish explorers in honor of San Felipe de Jesus, 1560-1597, first Mexican Martyr. A watering place on road blazed in 1849 between San Antonio and the Pacific. A stage stand on the San Diego route 1857 to 1883.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Spanish explorers named these springs in the 1600s for San Felipe de Jesús, the first Mexican martyr, and their reliable water made the site a natural stopping place on the arid road west. In 1849 the springs marked a watering point on the newly blazed route between San Antonio and the Pacific, and from 1857 to 1883 they served as a stage stand on the San Diego line.
Why it matters
Dependable water dictated the paths of exploration, migration, and mail across the Southwest, and San Felipe Springs shows how a single desert spring could shape three centuries of travel.
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Nearby & related markers
San Felipe Springs
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The seven San Felipe Springs have drawn travelers since at least 1542, and in 1675 Spanish priests named them for their king; in the 1700s Comanches camped here along a war trail into Mexico, and a mission rose downstream in 1808. By the 1850s the springs lay on the vast San Antonio–to–San Diego mail route and the Chihuahua Road, where wagons hauled Mexican silver and gold toward the Gulf port of Indianola. After settlers arrived in 1864 and dug the 'Mother Ditch' for irrigation, the town of Del Rio soon took root.
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