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A Royal Road TripDriving through time, and East Texas, on El Camino de los TejasBy Angela Fox
For modern-day trailblazers, the easternmost portion of El Camino Real offers the chance to wander through historic towns like San Augustine, Nacogdoches and Crockett and enjoy the spectacular scenery of state parks and national forests along the way. The route in autumn also affords views of red and gold foliage against the backdrop of deep green pine forests. It is, in fact, an October afternoon when my husband and I set out on our own royal road trip. We drive in from Louisiana where the road is called Louisiana Highway 6 but, as we pass over the bridge spanning Toledo Bend Reservoir, we enter Texas and the road becomes Texas Highway 21. Created in 1966 and encompassing 181,000 acres, Toledo Bend is the South’s largest man-made lake. The bridge we are crossing is at the same spot where 19th century travelers crossed the Sabine River (then a lot narrower, of course) via a ferry. From here, we head westward, planning to cover some 175 miles and end our journey where the old trail meets the 21st century at I-45.
After a leisurely drive through rolling farmland and trees just beginning to show fall color, we arrive in San Augustine, a picturesque town that calls itself the “Cradle of Texas” – for good reason. Sam Houston, Stephen F. Austin, Davy Crockett, and just about every other key figure in the fight for Texas independence walked San Augustine’s streets back in 1836. But the town nurtured other important movements, as well. It was the site of the first university in Texas (the now-defunct San Augustine University chartered in 1837) and the first African-American church of record, the Jerusalem Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, organized in 1845 and still in operation.
We can’t begin to see them all, but with the Oglesbees’
help, we hit some highlights. The Columns, built in 1902, is now a bed and
breakfast offering six antique-filled bedrooms, each with private bath.
We travel back in time even further at our next stop -- the site of Mission Nuestra Senora de los Dolores, one of the earliest Spanish missions in Texas founded in 1717. Though the mission itself is long gone, the site is listed in the National Register of Historic Places and is a designated State Archeological Landmark. Today, the Mission Dolores Visitor Center, in a park-like setting near downtown, traces the mission’s history in interactive and interpretive displays.
After the show, we stroll around the square, eyeing the antique shops and browsing through Christmas ornaments, gourmet edibles, clothing, jewelry and other Texas-made or themed items at a shop called Heart of Texas on the Square. We also make a stop at the visitors’ center in the courthouse, a must for area information and fun exhibits on the town’s colorful history.
We make an early start the next day, as we want to visit the two state parks along our route. On the way out of town, we get sidetracked at Christ Episcopal School’s Pumpkin Patch, at the corner of Mound Street and Starr Avenue. It’s too early in the morning for pumpkin shopping, and we can’t take one with us on the road anyway, but the hundreds of pumpkins of all shapes and sizes glistening in the early morning dew is a sight to behold.
Under a perfect blue sky, we wander the self-guided trail that winds past several earth mounds, thought to have been temples and used in burials and other religious ceremonies. The visitors’ center offers more insight into the Caddoan civilization through pottery, chipped flint tools, shell necklaces, engraved bone ornaments and other artifacts found in the burial mounds, as well as interpretive displays and an audio-visual program. Just six miles west of Caddoan Mounds, we pull into Mission Tejas State Historical Park, named for the first Spanish mission established in the province of Texas. That early mission is no more, but in its place stands a charming log chapel built by the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Depression. The thickly wooded park is a fine spot for picnics and hiking, as well as perch and bream fishing in a small pond and overnight camping.
We stroll a few blocks to the town square, abuzz with
shops, eateries and an independent movie theatre. Even though it may spoil our
supper, we can’t resist a cup of coffee and a slice of homemade coconut cream
pie at the Moosehead Café.
After a delicious hot breakfast at the Warfield House the
next morning, it is time to bid Crockett farewell and hit the royal road one
last time. Early on a Sunday, the town square is deserted as we pull away from
the 1897 Victorian inn, circle the 1939 Moderne-style courthouse and pass a sign
marking an empty lot where the town’s namesake Davy Crockett camped on his way
to the Alamo in 1836.
Photos by Virgil Fox El Camino Trail Partners are Sabine County, San Augustine, Nacogdoches and Crockett. For more information, contact: Sabine County Chamber of Commerce San Augustine County Chamber of Commerce Nacogdoches Convention & Visitors Bureau Crockett Area Chamber of Commerce |
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El
Camino Real de los Tejas, also known as the Old San Antonio Road and the King's
Highway, has been a busy thoroughfare in Texas ever since Spanish explorers
blazed the trail 300 years ago. Portions of the trail that were Indian footpaths
even predate the Spanish. The road, in fact, isn’t one road at all, but a
2,580-mile network of trails winding from the Rio Grande through San Antonio and
eastern Texas to Natchitoches in Louisiana. The route once trod by Indians,
priests, settlers, and immigrants, by outlaws, soldiers and Texas freedom
fighters, was designated a National Historic Trail in 2004.
Soon
after crossing into Texas, we pull into El Camino Park in Milam, at the
intersection of Texas Highway 87 North and Texas Highway 21. Originally called
Red Mound, the town of Milam, founded in 1828, served as the first county seat
of Sabine County. When the seat was moved to Hemphill to the south, Milam became
the sleepy little crossroads community it is today. We explore the park, next to
the post office, with a restored, one-story, log cabin built about 1830, and
spot the first of many stone El Camino Real markers placed by the Texas Society
of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the state along the route back
in 1918. There is also a small store/barbeque joint and Nethery's Store, the
oldest continually run business (since 1880) in Sabine County. Once a general
merchandise emporium, Nethery’s now sells antiques on weekends. Our luck, it’s a
weekday, so we can only peer in the dusty windows and examine the vintage signs
and old plows displayed outside.
Our
first stop is the San Augustine Civic and Tourism Center, where we pick up
information on area lodging, dining and attractions and admire the unusual and
beautiful gold-leaf paintings depicting local history that adorn the center’s
interior walls. Then we head off on a driving tour of the town with John and
Betty Oglesbee, a couple who literally wrote the book on local history (San
Augustine: A Texas Treasure, 2001, East Texas Historical Association). “We have
60 Texas medallion homes, churches, and sites in the county and five houses
listed on the National Register of Historic Places,” says Betty.
We
enjoy a tour but can’t spend the night as the inn is booked solid. Just down the
road from The Columns is the 1840 home of the state’s first governor, J. P.
Henderson. O. M Roberts also lived in San Augustine for a time before becoming
governor in 1879. 
The
next day, we jump back to the present as we head west for a night’s rest at the
Fredonia Hotel in Nacogdoches, the biggest town along this stretch of El Camino
Real. We arrive just in time for an unexpected treat – an outdoor performance of
the Nacogdoches Rhythm Rockers on the town square. Part of the free Friday Lunch
Music series, the local dancers are kicking up their collective heels to the
sounds of country music as an appreciative audience in lawn chairs claps their
hands and taps their feet to the beat. The town is already in Halloween mode,
with decorations like a giant inflated ghost mounted on the courthouse roof.
Swaying in the wind, the ghost seems to dance right along with the Rhythm
Rockers. 
A
bit weary from our road trip, we check into the Fredonia just off the square.
Built by a coalition of Nacogdoches citizens in 1952 for $500,000 and still
owned today by a group of community stockholders, the hotel was renovated in the
early 1990s and a convention space added. Besides comfortable modern rooms, the
hotel boasts an excellent full-service restaurant and lounge with outdoor dining
on the patio adjacent to the pool. Lucky us, it’s Friday night and the Fredonia
is hosting its popular “Jazz on the Patio” series. We meet up with Marty Prince,
a visual artist who is also marketing director at the hotel, and relax with her
to the sounds of the Nac Pac Jazz Trio, a local smooth-jazz ensemble, while
enjoying bread pudding and chocolate cake with raspberries and coffee under the
stars. 
We
are a little surprised at the number of cars at the first state park – until we
realize we’ve stumbled into the annual Archeology Fair at Caddoan Mounds State
Historic Site. “We’ve been doing this since 1990 and it gets bigger every year,”
Jim Herold, the park ranger, tells us. The all-day event features Native
American and European craft demonstrations, like cooking on flat stones (makes
you appreciated non-stick frying pans!) and blacksmithing as well as a simulated
archeology dig staged by students from Stephen F. Austin University in
Nacogdoches. The park is on the site of an ancient Caddo village and ceremonial
center that dates to around 800 A.D. The prehistoric Caddo dominated the East
Texas forests for almost 1,000 years until European explorers and settlers
arrived and erased their civilization. 
By
early afternoon we reach Crockett, the last major town along our route. We check
out our large, elegant bedroom at the Warfield House, a bed and breakfast right
on El Camino Real (called Houston Avenue in downtown Crockett) and chat with our
hosts, Ken Moore and Doug Buchmann. “We wanted to get out of the rat race of Las
Vegas and buy a bed and breakfast somewhere,” says Doug. “We had never even been
to Texas but when we saw this inn for sale on the Internet we knew it was the
one.” Buchmann and Moore are just as taken with Crockett and point us in the
direction of its key attractions.
Energized
by sugar and caffeine, we explore a few antiques shops and check out the Camp
Street Café, a popular live music venue just off the square. On the bill that
evening are the Gillette Brothers, purveyors of traditional cowboy music who
also happen to be the owners of the café. We run into Guy Gillette out front and
he invites us in for a look around and also points out the statue across the
street. It honors Texas bluesman Sam “Lightnin’” Hopkins, who used to play for
tips back in the 1940s when the café was the Starlight Barbershop and Pool Hall.
We already have dinner plans elsewhere and won’t be able to catch the music that
night, but we promise ourselves to return someday soon.
As
we reenter the 21st Century a short while later, merging with a jolt into
interstate traffic, we decide that El Camino Real may not really be a time
machine – but it sure comes close.