The Royal Road – El Camino Real
Runs roughly from the banks of the Red River on Highway 21 to San Antonio. It is also called the Old San Antonio Road. Roughly from Ft. St.Jean Baptiste des Natchitoches, Louisiana to Nacogdoches, Texas then through Bryan to San Antonio and on to San Juan Bautista, Presidio del Norte (Saint Jean Baptiste, Fort of the North) in Guerrero, Mexico, this route was built upon earlier Indian trade routes. The same route would have then followed into Saltillo, Mexico and beyond.
The road was described as a ‘hard-beaten path as wide as any in Europe’ when the Europeans first came. After the coming of the Spanish and then the French, it became the trade route of the French and Spanish in modern-day Mexico, Texas and Louisiana. From San Antonio to San Diego, California and another El Camino Real- The King’s Highway runs to Mexico City, the capitol.
Patti Lemee
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