Site of "Old Soledad"

Nacogdoches, TX

Martin de Alarcon became governor of Spanish Texas in 1716 with a mandate to plant a secure presidio along the San Antonio River to supply the frontier missions. In 1718 his expedition founded the villa of San Fernando de Bexar—today's San Antonio—along with the mission San Antonio de Valero, later famous as the Alamo. Though missionaries resented his crackdown on French trade, his settlement and the turmoil that followed a 1719 French raid laid the foundations for one of Texas's great cities.

Nacogdoches, TX

In 1719, as Spain and France clashed over their overlapping colonial claims, the Marquis de San Miguel de Aguayo took over as governor of Spanish Texas and set out to secure its eastern frontier. In 1721 he led the largest entrada ever mounted in Spanish Texas—nearly 600 soldiers, missionaries, and caretakers—reestablishing six abandoned missions and building presidios that anchored Spanish authority against the nearby French. Along the way he forged alliances with Caddo and Hainai leaders, and negotiated a French withdrawal after learning the two crowns were no longer at war.

Nacogdoches, TX

Long home to the Nacogdoches Indians, this East Texas region saw Spanish settlement begin in 1716, though the presence was repeatedly abandoned and re-established amid French encroachment. The town of Nacogdoches was founded in 1779, and the area became the scene of the Fredonian Rebellion in 1827. Organized as a municipality under Mexico in 1832, it was made a Texas county in 1836.

Alto, TX

Peter Ellis Bean led one of the most improbable lives on the early Southwestern frontier. Arriving with Philip Nolan's mustang hunters in 1800, he was captured by Spanish troops, imprisoned in Mexico, then freed to fight—first for royalists, then for the Mexican rebels under Morelos. He even joined Andrew Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans before returning to Mexico, later serving as an Indian agent in Texas and settling near this site.