The Orcoquisac Road

When Spain established a mission and presidio on the lower Trinity River in 1755, they needed a reliable, known road with which to supply it from La Bahia and San Antonio.  This road was known as the Orcoquisac Road after its destination on the Trinity.  The road ran from near modern Round Top in Fayette County, nearly due east through northern Austin, Waller and Harris Counties to cross the San Jacinto River at the town of that name, and reach the Trinity near Liberty, north of the Orcoquisac complex at Wallisville.  The road was extensively used for over a decade, but was abandoned when the Orcoquisac complex was closed and abandoned in 1771.

The Orcoquisac Road

The William P. Huff Wagon Train Gold Rush Map of 1849

William P. Huff, a San Felipe merchant, joined a group of Texans who traveled to the newly discovered gold fields of California in a wagon train in 1849.   Huff wrote an extensive journal of his journey from Fredericksburg, Texas to Yuma, Arizona, in which he left detailed information about the route taken along what came to be known as the Southern Emigrant Route.  Huff’s entire journal will soon be published, for the first tine, by James Woodrick.  Meanwhile, those who are interested in the earliest roads through West Texas, and on to California can access the interactive map below to see the entire journey, with its daily stops.  A daily log with summary description of each day's travel is also included below.

Daily Log Summary of the Huff Wagon Train Journey  

The William Huff Wagon Train Map   1849

Cannons on the Lower Brazos and at Anahuac

  Cannons on the lower Brazos river began arriving in 1830, and at Anahuac in 1831.  More arrived in 1835 when Mexican troops established Fort Velasco in April, and when a Mexican ship grounded there in July.  In September of 1835 a small swivel gun from Brazoria was sent to Gonzales; it fired the first shot in the Battle of Gonzales.  This same gun had fired the first shot in the Battle of Velasco in 1832; it is on display today in the Gonzales Memorial Museum.  All of the artillery remaining on the lower Brazos at the end of March, 1836, was sent to Galveston, and from there the Twin Sisters were sent to Sam Houston's army for use at San Jacinto.

       Read all about the history of these cannons in the following link:

Cannons on the Lower Brazos and at Anahuac 

The Treasure of Punta de Llano

Stories of buried treasure have captivated people throughout the ages. Texas has an ample number of these legends, from lost silver mines on the San Saba to treasure buried by pirates near Houston, or by John Singer on Padre Island. Many people have searched for these treasures, but so far none have been found - at least not yet. The little town of Oakland, Texas, has its own unique and fascinating legend of buried gold. They call it the Treasure of Punta de Llano, Spanish for Prairie Point, the original name of Oakland. Immerse yourself in this legend — it is a fascinating story even if you never hoist a shovel and go digging! 

The Treasure of Punta de Llano 

The Lost San Saba Silver Mine

Indians told the Spaniards there was silver in the Texas Hill Country.  Hoping for another bonanza like they had discovered in northern Mexico, Spanish officials sent out several expeditions to find the mines.  They did locate the source of the Indian tales, on a creek near the mouth of the Llano River near Kingsland.  They called it Los Almagres (hills of ocher, a brownish-red hematite, a pigment associated with silver ore).  They took samples from the mine to Mexico for testing, and then dug larger quantities, smelting it to test for silver concentration at the newly established presidio on the San Saba river.  All of the tests yielded low to no silver content; the Spanish effort halted with these negative results and the destruction of the nearby mission by Comanches in 1758, and later abandonment of the presidio..  

Then came the Americans.  Steven  Austin heard of the silver mines and listed them on his early maps of Texas.  Jim Bowie in San Antonio made expeditions to the San Saba presidio in search of the mines, finding the slag from the earlier Spanish testing of Los Almagres ore but no silver.  Bowie’s reports firmly planted in the minds of future treasure seekers that the lost mine was at or near the "mission", as the presidio ruins had become known.  Over the remainder of the 1800’s and into the early 1900s many Texans canvassed the area between the San Saba and Llano rivers, with no success. 

Read all about this fascinating legend of buried treasure in the Texas Hill Country.

Los Almagres silver mine