The Royal Road of the Tejas Indians, El Camino Real de los Tejas, was born hundreds of years ago when the Native Americans followed routes used by buffalo and other animals, realizing that these early creatures knew the best paths to take. Also known as Kings Highway, it later became a major thoroughfare used by travelers from the East coming to Louisiana, Texas, and Mexico. In 2004, El Camino Real de los Tejas took on new meaning when the historical road was designated as the 19th National Historic Trail in the United States. Development is guided by El Camino Real de los Tejas National Historic Trail Association housed in Austin, Texas.

Trammel’s Trace tells the story of a borderlands smuggler and an important passageway into early Texas. Trammel’s Trace, named for Nicholas Trammell, was the first route from the United States into the northern boundaries of Spanish Texas. From the Great Bend of the Red River it intersected with El Camino Real de los Tejas in Nacogdoches. By the early nineteenth century, Trammel’s Trace was largely a smuggler’s trail that delivered horses and contraband into the region. It was a microcosm of the migration, lawlessness, and conflict that defined the period. By the 1820s, as Mexico gained independence from Spain, smuggling declined as Anglo immigration became the primary use of the trail. Familiar names such as Sam Houston, David Crockett, and James Bowie joined throngs of immigrants making passage along Trammel’s Trace. Indeed, Nicholas Trammell opened trading posts on the Red River and near Nacogdoches, hoping to claim a piece of Austin’s new colony. Austin denied Trammell’s entry, however, fearing his poor reputation would usher in a new wave of smuggling and lawlessness. By 1826, Trammell was pushed out of Texas altogether and retreated back to Arkansas Even so, as author Gary L. Pinkerton concludes, Trammell was “more opportunist than outlaw and made the most of disorder.”

An inspirational bucket list for hikers, history buffs, armchair travelers, and all those who wish to walk in the hallowed footsteps of American history. 2020 GOLD WINNER OF THE FOREWORD INDIES AWARD IN HISTORY 2021 NATIONAL OUTDOOR BOOK AWARD WINNER From the battlefields of the American Revolution to the trails blazed by the pioneers, lands explored by Lewis and Clark and covered by the Pony Express, to the civil-rights marches of Selma and Montgomery, this is the official book of the country's 19 National Historic Trails. These trails range from 54 miles to more than 5,000 and feature historic and interpretive sites to be explored on foot and sometimes by paddle, sail, bicycle, horse, or by car on backcountry roads. Totaling 37,000 miles through 41 states, our entire national experience comes to life on these trails--from Native American history to the settlement of the colonies, westward expansion, and civil rights--and they are beautifully depicted in this large-format volume.

Modern Texas, like Mexico to the south, traces its beginning to sixteenth-century encounters between Spaniards, Native American peoples, and a vast land unexplored by Europeans. Unlike Mexico, however, Texas eventually received the stamp of Anglo-American culture, so that Spanish contributions to present-day Texas tend to be obscured or even unknown. In this pathfinding study, Donald E. Chipman draws on archival and secondary sources to write the story of Spain's three-hundred-year presence and continuing influence in the land that has become Texas. Chipman begins with the first European sighting of Texas shores in 1519. He goes on to chronicle the amazing eight-year (1528-1536) trek across much of southern Texas and northern Mexico that brought Cabeza de Vaca and three companions from a shipwreck near Galveston Island all the way to Mexico City. He records the exploits of Francisco Vazquez de Coronado and Luis Moscoso in the early 1540s and the subsequent 150-year hiatus in Spanish exploration in Texas. Chipman devotes much attention to the eighteenth century, a time of active Spanish colonization. He examines the role of missions, presidios, and civil settlements and discusses relations between the Spanish and other groups, including Native Americans, French explorers, and Anglo-Americans. Although Mexican independence ended the Spanish era in 1821, Chipman finds that Spain has left a substantial legacy in modern Texas. Ranching and its terminology sprang from Spanish vaqueros. Spanish precedents have shaped modern Texas law in the areas of judicial procedure, land and water law, and family law. Spanish influences abound in Texas art, architecture, music, and theater, not to mentionthe widely spoken Spanish language. And the Roman Catholic religion introduced by the Spaniards continues to have many adherents in Texas. In short, the rich history of Spain in Texas deserves to be widely known by "Texana buffs" and professional historians alike, and Spanish Texas, 1519-1821 is the one-volume source to consult.

For eighty-seven miles, the swift and shallow Blanco River winds through the Texas Hill Country. Its water is clear and green, darkened by frequent pools. Wes Ferguson and Jacob Botter have paddled, walked, and waded the Blanco. They have explored its history, people, wildlife, and the natural beauty that surprises everyone who experiences this river. Described as “the defining element in some of the Hill Country’s most beautiful scenery,” the Blanco flows both above and below ground, part of a network of rivers and aquifers that sustains the region’s wildlife and millions of humans alike. However, overpumping and prolonged drought have combined to weaken the Blanco’s flow and sustenance, and in 2000—for the first time in recorded history—the river’s most significant feeder spring, Jacob’s Well, briefly ceased to flow. It stopped again in 2008. Then, in the spring of 2015, a devastating flood killed twelve people and toppled the huge cypress trees along its banks, altering not just the look of the river, but the communities that had come to depend on its serene presence. River travelers Ferguson and Botter tell the remarkable story of this changeable river, confronting challenges and dangers as well as rare opportunities to see parts of the river few have seen. The authors also photographed and recorded the human response to the destruction of a beloved natural resource that has become yet another episode in the story of water in Texas. To learn more about The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment, sponsors of this book's series, please click here.