Did You know The Oldest Road In Texas Is Older Than The United States?

If you are from Texas, I don't have to tell you how much we love our Texas history.

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Traveling has been a thing I have done more in my 30s and I love seeing the historic markers passed during road trips. As many historic landmarks passed on the road, I wondered what is the most historic road traveled in Texas.

OLD SAN ANTONIO ROAD

The oldest road in Texas dates back to the 1690s. It is known by several names, including the Old San Antonio Road, the El Camino Real, the King's Highway, and the San Antonio-Nacogdoches Road. Though it may sound like one road, the Old Road is better described as a network of trails, with different routes used at different times.

The first recorded travel was in 1690 when Alonso De León embarked on his fourth expedition to East Texas to establish the San Francisco de los Texas Mission. This expedition plus one in 1691 traveled by Domingo Terán de los Rios and another traveled by Gregorio de Salinas Varona in 1963 set the trail known as the oldest road in Texas. The trail was mainly used to transport supplies to missions.

ESTABLISHING THE OLDEST ROAD

Texas legislature hired surveyor V.N. Zivley to mark the route of the Old San Antonio Road in 1915. Zivley struggled to find evidence of the trail in historical documents but used Juan Agustin Morfi's diary from 1778 to better establish the route. Juan was a missionary, teacher, and historian from Spain who traveled the road often. The route mapped out by Zipley was just one of several routes along the Old San Antonio Road. Researchers determined that the path travelers used depended on the season, conditions, and the presence of Native Americans. In 1929, the Texas legislature made Zivley's version of the Old San Antonio Road one of the historic trails of Texas. The Route is from Sabine to San Antonio and is used at State Highway 21 and other county roads.

In 1991 the state put in place a preservation plan for the road. This would continue to study the road, preserve any artifacts found, and continue to develop educational and tourist information for the public. The historic marker is located at the southwest corner of Highway 410 and Nacogdoches Street in San Antonio Texas.