Remnants of the Past

In fourteen hundred and ninety-two, Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue.

This short rhyme is taught to schoolchildren across the nation to help teach kids about Christopher Columbus. But, who and what did he and other European explorers discover? According to William Denevan in his book, The Native Population of the Americas in 1492, he estimates the Americas held a population of approximately 112 million people. There were vast groups of peoples and cultures spread out across the continents not to mention full-fledged empires like the Aztecs, Inca, and Maya.

Even here in Texas, explorers found multiple civilizations of people who thrived and traded with each other. The Spanish incorporated many of their words and used their infrastructure when growing their empire.

My family and I took a trip last Friday to one of the vestiges of the Pre-Columbian cultures here in Texas at Caddo Mounds State Historical Site and Mission Tejas State Park. Both parks are found off Hwy 21 west of Alto.

Caddo Mounds State Historical Site contains three large mounds that were built as part of a village that grew and thrived and for several hundred years supported a population of approximately 600 people. Archeologist have found evidence of over 125 homes not to mention the mounds, two of which were used for ceremonies while the third was a burial mound that housed the remains of 90 people buried over 700 years.

The people who lived here were part of a trade network that expanded all through the region. The Caddo who lived in modern day Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Arkansas were similar culturally to the larger Mississippian Native American cultures living to the northeast. The people would trade for flint from the Hill Country, buffalo hides from north Texas, seashells from the coast, and stone tools from as far away as Illinois. The Caddo also made pottery from the East Texas clay and bow and arrows from the Osage Orange (bois d’arc) trees that grew locally.

The settlement was abandoned around 1300 although Caddo lived in the area continually until much later.

The people planted crops like corn, potatoes, and beans while hunting game like deer and fishing in the nearby Neches River.

The trade routes, some of which ran by the village became the legendary El Comino Real de los Tejas (The Royal Road of the Tejas) running from San Antonio to Natchitoches and points farther east and was one of the main thoroughfares running through Texas. Named for the Caddo or as the Spanish called them, Tejas.

Zebulon Pike, who discovered Pike’s Peak in Colorado was captured as a spy by the Spanish in Colorado and was escorted back to America. His path according to his journals went through San Antonio and Nacogdoches including camping within sight of the mounds.

Many groups of Native Americans built mounds like the ones found outside of Alto, many can be found throughout the Mississippi River Valley including some outside of the Shiloh Battlegrounds in Tennessee. The largest is called Cahokia Mounds outside of East St. Louis, Illinois which at its apex around the year 1100 held a population of 14000-18000 people and would have been comparable in population at that time to London.

We have this idea held into our subconscious that Native Americans were small groups of people that traveled around hunting buffalo and other game out on the plains but that does not describe all Native Americans. They were complex groups of people and cultures that traded and held onto many of the trappings of civilization as did the Europeans. There were Native Americans living across the land living diversely as the Europeans that would later displace the Native Americans and settle these lands.

One of the things in both parks that entranced me was the original sections of the El Comino Real. This is something personal but something that has always intrigued me as a self-proclaimed history nerd was how and where people settled and moved about in pre-modern times in Texas. The old network of roads started as nothing more than trails. Both state parks held original portions of the El Comino real in as close as original condition.

In Mission Tejas State Park, the section of El Comino Real could be seen as a sunken road. The section had sunk into a hillside over the centuries of use. In Caddo Mounds State Historical Site, the road was a sunken pathway leading down a hill between pine trees heading toward the river.

It would have been interesting to see these dirt roadways through the piney woods with Franciscan Missionaries meeting Native Americans, settlers, explorers, cattle drovers, and Spanish soldiers.

The El Comino Real was not the only road network in Texas the La Bahia Road farther to the south included settlements like Goliad and Washington-On-The-Brazos. The road network was used by both sides during the Texas Revolution and were still in existence connecting communities later during the American Civil War.

In the 1600’s Spain sent Franciscan Friars into east Texas to setup missions to assert their claims over the region. In 1690, Mission San Francisco de Los Tejas was founded as an attempt to convert native Caddo to Christianity. The mission was abandoned in 1693 and was relocated multiple times along with other missions in the region eventually being relocated to San Antonio and renamed San Francisco de la Espada.

In the runup to the Texas Centennial, Houston County leaders viewed the present park area as the location of the first mission in east Texas and pushed the state for adoption. The Texas Forestry Service purchased the land in 1934 and the Civilian Conservation Corp built the park including the reconstruction of the mission finishing in May 1935.

Here in Navarro County, we know Native Americans lived and traveled through the area. The Battle Creek Fight occurred in the southwest and western parts of the county culminating near Dawson and Fort Parker is only 30 miles away.

When I was a child, my grandparent had a sandpit off FM 709 near Richland Creek. As a child I would explore while my grandfather worked and would often find arrowheads.

Many of you have found arrowheads of remnants of these past cultures that lived in this area.

Remembering history is important, learning from the past as well understanding how the people who lived here before us.

If you travel to Caddo Mounds State Historical Site from the west on Hwy 21, you will notice a curious sight. As you approach the Neches River, you will notice a large swath of dead trees. When you approach the park, you will see a slab. On April 13, 2019, two tornados hit Alto, the second tornado hit the park devastating the land around the park destroying a life-sized restoration of a Caddo grass hut and the museum killing one person. They have relocated to a temporary building while they rebuild. The museum has plenty of items and their classroom is bigger than before.