El Camino Real De los Tejas
National Historic Trail Designation Study

SUMMARY

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the feasibility and desirability of designating El Camino Real de los Tejas as a national historic trail under the study provisions of the National Trails System Act (Public Law [PL] 90-543, 16 USC 1241 et seq.). El Camino Real de los Tejas and variations in the primary route were used for more than 150 years as the principal route between Mexico City, Saltillo, Monclova, and respective presidios, and the missions near the present Guerrero, Coahuila, Mexico, on the Rio Grande and Los Adaes in what is now northwestern Louisiana.

This study documents the international significance of the entire route from Mexico City to the Spanish provincial capital of Los Adaes and on to Natchitoches, Louisiana. It also documents the national significance of the Old San Antonio Road, which coincides with El Camino Real in many segments. The emphasis of the study is on the part of the trail that is in , the United States from the Rio Grande in Maverick County, Texas, to Natchitoches, Louisiana.

El Camino Real de los Tejas is composed of several routes, some of which overlap in alignment; others have distinctively different alignments. This illustrates different regional and international influences on the preferred route. In some cases different names were applied to the same route. Some routes had distinctively different names. the routes that make up El Camino Real de Ios Tejas are Camino Pita, Upper Presidio Road, Upper Road, Lower Road, Lower Presidio Road, Camino de en Medio, and the Laredo Road. The Old San Antonio Road is a separate road system that in part followed El Camino Real and overlaps it in many segments.

In addition, this study documents that El Camino Real de los Tejas meets the criteria of -section 5(b) of the National Trails System Act for feasibility and desirability. The study also addresses each of the required elements that are listed in the National Trails System Act, section 5(b).

El Camino Real de los Tejas is nationally significant because of its use for exploration, conquest, missionary supply, settlement, cultural exchange, and military campaigns. This study contains descriptions of the cultural and natural resources along the trail route, as well as descriptions of public use sites. 

Groups, organizations, and public agencies have demonstrated a great deal of interest and support for commemorating, researching, and identifying the route over the past several years. This study has been prepared with the cooperation of the Instituto Nacional de Antropologfa e Historia (INAH) of the government of Mexico. Although there is no legislation in Mexico comparable to the National Trails System Act, INAH has been active in documenting and preserving sites related to El Camino Real.

In April 1998 the National Park Service Long Distance Trails Office in Santa Fe, New Mexico, issued the Draft National Historic Trail Feasibility Study: El Camino Real de los Tejas for a 30-day public review period. More than 450 copies of the document were mailed to state and federal agencies; elected representatives; local officials; historical commissions; historians; cattle, farm, and land rights groups; and others. All comments have been supportive of the national significance of El Camino Real de los Tejas and its designation as a national historic trail.

If designated by Congress as a national historic trail, El Camino Real de los Tejas and the Old San Antonio Road would be managed through cooperative partnerships with public agencies, nonprofit organizations, and landowners. The federal role would be to set and maintain standards, provide technical and limited financial assistance to partners, and help ensure consistent preservation, education, and public use programs. There would be little, if any, federal acquisition of private land. It is recommended that authorities be enacted so that land would be acquired only from willing sellers.

The designation of El Camino Real de los Tejas as a unit of the national trails system would make possible the coordination of activities along the length of the trail. It also would mean increased opportunities for coordination with the Mexican government on respective resource preservation and research, as well as enhanced opportunities for cooperative educational programs and tourism related to El Camino Real de los Tejas.