El Camino Real Meeting to Honor Late Archaeologist Dr. Kathleen Gilmore

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Jeanne Williams and the Temple Daily Telegram

El Camino Real Meeting to Honor Late Archaeologist

by Jeanne Williams

Temple Daily Telegram - September 19, 2010

APACHE PASS — Anyone who fancies the El Camino Real de los Tejas National Historic Trail

to be a ghost trail from Texas’ past might want to drive the Interstate 35 corridor from

Laredo to Austin.

“Millions of people travel this road, which once was part of the El Camino Real de los

Tejas,” said Steven Gonzales, president of the San Marcos-based national association

organized to preserve and promote the network of ancient trails across Texas’ interior

that once linked Mexico City to Natchitoches, La.

The third annual membership meeting of the El Camino Real de los Tejas National Historic

Trail Association is on Oct. 21-22 at Apache Pass resort off FM 908, where a shallow

ford of the San Gabriel River was traversed centuries ago by Spanish explorer Ponce de

Leon as he journeyed along the El Camino Real, or The King’s Highway.

Gen. Santa Anna and Texas patriots Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie traveled the El Camino

Real en route from different directions to the Alamo in San Antonio.

In addition to devising strategies to promote the trail as a tourism destination, the

organization will honor Dr. Kathleen Kirk Gilmore, an archaeological trailblazer whose

excavations in 1969 at the San Xavier Mission sites led to the area’s listing in the

National Registry of Historic Places. Gilmore, at age 94, re-visited the mission sites

in 2009 with plans to lead another excavation to unearth the site of the presidio. She

died earlier this year.

In October 2004, President George W. Bush signed into law the new El Camino Real de los

Tejas National Historic Trail in recognition of its importance in linking Mexico and

Louisiana. The El Camino Real, started in 1691, is not one route, but a network of

pathways called the upper trail.

The King’s Highway played an important role in Milam County history: The trail carried

caravans of Roman Catholic missionaries into the San Gabriel area where the San Xavier

Missions were established in 1745; the low-water crossing at Apache Pass is still

accessible to visitors; and Sugar Loaf Mountain, sacred peak of the Tonkawa Indians, was

used as a navigating point, Gonzales said. Two branches of the El Camino Real pass

through Milam County, he said.

The El Camino Real led to the founding of Texas and Louisiana and is among 19 nationally

recognized historical trails, including the Santa Fe Trail, the Lewis and Clark Trail

and the Oregon Trail.

“Without this trail we would not be calling Texas, Texas today,” said Gonzales,

explaining that the pathways carried early 19th-century pioneers and various cultures

into the state.

Speakers at the meetings next month include Dr. Jesus De La Teja, a state historian from

Texas State University who is a recognized expert in the colonial history and the

mission era in Texas, and National Park Service representatives. The two-day event will

offer opportunities to explore Apache Pass, including the historic Worley Bridge, join a

hay ride along a natural trail, listen to storytellers and view authentic Native

American dances presented by Chief Rufus Davis’ Adais Caddo tribe from Natchitoches, La.

The Oct. 21 session will conclude with a 7 p.m. reception and unveiling of a National

Park Service photographic exhibit featuring scenery from the El Camino Real de los Tejas

National Historic Trail, to be displayed at the Lucy Hill Patterson Memorial Library in

Rockdale. The next day, the association will elect its board of directors and hold

meetings with national park service representatives. All events are open to the public.

Chris Talbot, a professor at Stephen F. Austin State University, took photographs along

the El Camino Real, starting in Mexico, Gonzales said. Rockdale was selected as the

second site for the exhibit, following its debut in Laredo.

Rockdale residents, Joy Graham and Dr. Lucile Estell were instrumental in securing the

national association’s third annual meeting place at Apache Pass.

Events are free, but participants are asked to pre-register. To register, contact

Gonzales at 512-850-9073 or stevengonzales@ msn.com.

jwilliams@tdtnews.com