Body
In 1691 the first Spanish provincial Governor of Texas, Domingo Teran de los Rios, ordered that a trail be blazed as a direct route from Monclova, then a capital of the province, to the Spanish Missions established among the Indians of East Texas in 1690. Spanish Explorers blazed the road from the Rio Grande across Texas to the River San Francisco De Sabinas (Sabine River). The distance of more than 500 miles was known as the El Camino Real, King’s Highway, which is one of the oldest and most traveled overland routes in North America. Today’s travelers are able to travel parts of the historic El Camino Real which, in 1929, was incorporated into State Highway 21. The road crosses the Toledo Bend Reservoir at the Pendleton Bridge, now spanning the Sabine River and connecting with Highway 6 in Louisiana. This route was later known as the Old San Antonio Road, beginning in Louisiana and transversing the land area that is now Sabine County, the Old San Antonio Road continued westward through Nacogdoches, Crockett, Bastrop, San Antonio, and on to Monclova, Mexico.
