Route of El Camino Real

The main thoroughfare of early Texas, The Camino Real, or "King's Highway", followed ancient Indian and buffalo trail. It stretched 1,000 miles from Mexico to present Louisiana. Domingo Teran de los Rios, first Governor of Texas, blessed the central section of the road in 1691. Called the "Trail of the Padres", it linked Monclova, Mexico, with the Spanish Missions of East Texas. Over the centuries, priests, soldiers, traders, and settlers used the Camino Real. The French adventurer T. Denis probably traveled the road from Lousiana to the Rio Grande in 1714. San Antonio was a major stop on this frontier highway. Moses Austin followed the Camino Real to San Antonio in 1820 seeking colonization rights from Spain. Many Anglo-American settlers called it the "old San Antonio Road". It joined this city with Nacogdoches, San Augustine, and other East Texas Settlements. In 1915 the Texas Legislature appropriated $5,000 to mark the historic roadway across the state. The Daughters of the American Revolution, along with other patriotic groups, endorsed the project. V.N. Zivley surveyed the route and indicated the spacing for granite markers every five miles. Today many modern highways follow the path of the Camino Real.

Route of El Camino Real is a historical marker in San Antonio, Bexar County, dedicated in 1979. It is one of 239 historical markers documented in Bexar County in the Texas Historical Commission Atlas, among 542 historic sites cataloged across the county.

The site sits at 29.5153, -98.4536 near San Antonio. The nearest cataloged historic site is King's Highway (historical marker), about under a tenth of a mile away. Others within a short drive include Lorant-Lorenz, Missionary Servants St. Anthony, and Sunset Memorial Park.

This record corresponds to Texas Historical Commission Atlas #5029001409. Use the map below for its exact position and turn-by-turn directions.