El Camino Real

Also known as Old San Antonio Road and Old Spanish Trail A trail of adventure, hardships, opportunity and freedom, over which history stalked into Texas. To the Spanish, El Camino Real was a road traveled for the king – to colonize, Christianize, seek adventure or look for riches. This road became the most famous. Its many parts were made, discovered or known hundreds of years before 1691, when Domingo Teran de los Rios, first Texas governor, joined and marked the different trails for the king. It was the route from Monclova (crossing the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass) to the missions of east Texas. Probably its trailblazers were buffalos and Indians, or Aztecs on trading expeditions. It was also probably traveled, described and changed in part by French explorer La Salle; by Alonso de Leon and Father Damian Massanet planting missions in east Texas; and by the French nobleman St. Denis seeking trade along the Rio Grande. As the years wore on, it was traveled in 1820 by Moses Austin, as well as by thousands of settlers who followed him. San Augustine, Nacogdoches and San Antonio were its principal cities; inns sprang up along the way. Soldiers and supply trains used it during the Texas Revolution, Mexican War and Civil War. It is still followed in part by this highway.

El Camino Real is a historical marker in Benchley, Robertson County, dedicated in 1968. It is one of 63 historical markers documented in Robertson County in the Texas Historical Commission Atlas, among 103 historic sites cataloged across the county.

The site sits at 30.7581, -96.4493 near Benchley. The nearest cataloged historic site is Staggers Point (historical marker), about under a tenth of a mile away. Others within a short drive include Henry-Peyton Cemetery, Wilson Chapel Cemetery, and Galloway.

This record corresponds to Texas Historical Commission Atlas #5395010908. Use the map below for its exact position and turn-by-turn directions.