El Camino de los Tejas Celebration in Bee County
Monday, February 13, 2012 at 9:51AM El Camino Real de los Tejas Celebration in Bee County
A photographic exhibit on the El Camino Real de los Tejas national Historic Trail will be at the Joe Barnhart Bee County Library during April and May of 2012. The Bee County Historical Commission, Joe Barnhart Bee County Library along with the National Trails Intermountain Region office of the National Park Service, in cooperation with Stephen F. Austin State University is happy to present the exhibit.
Professor Christopher Talbot of Stephen F. Austin State University School of Art is the photographer who captured outstanding images of trail swales, acequias, river crossings, forts, missions, presidios, and other original remnants along the old route. His visual documentation of Camino Real is supported by Stephen F. Austin University and the National Trails Intermountain Region’s Challenge Cost Share Program.
The public is invited to meet the photographer at a reception/Fajita Fiesta to be held in the Doughterty Room and Courtyard of the Library on Thursday April 19th at 5:30 pm. Other speakers at the event will be Steven Gonzales, Executive Director El Camino Real de los Tejas NHT Association, and El Camino Real de los Tejas board member and well know Victoria historian, Gary Dunnam. Popular Spanish songs from early Texas will be sung by balladeer and songwriter, Robert Rivera Ojeda. Alfredo Serna will accompany Mr. Ojeda on the accordion.
El Camino Real de los Tejas National Historical Trail was designated by Congress in 2004 to commemorate the significant historical routes extending from the international border at the Rio Grande to the easternmost section of the Spanish province of Texas in Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana.
The trail long pre-dates the establishment of the United States. In the 1680s when the Spanish began to travel regularly into Texas and western Louisiana, they followed already existing American Indian trails. The Spanish used these paths to reach areas where they established missions and presidios. Eventually, armies and immigrants followed these routes which led to Euro-American settlements across the two states. Bee County, founded in 1858, is a good example of a way-station on the Indianola Trail. Many of these roads continued to be used and became part of modern highway systems. In many places, Spanish names for roads and landscape features have been retained. Physical remains of the trail are testimony of a rich heritage and to the significant events that occurred along the trail.
Maps of the trail which runs through the northern part of Bee County will be available at the reception on April 19th.
Check below for a link to Christopher Talbot's brochure on El Camaino do los Tejas.