One of the most famous roadways in America, the El Camino Real de los Tejas
National Historic Trail, will be the site of a miles-long “Sale on the Trail” on the weekend of May 1-2, 2009. The El Camino Real, which means “King’s Highway” in Spanish, is the oldest road in Texas.
Begun as one of the many well-used Indian trails in Texas, the Spanish expanded and improved the route it to connect a series of Spanish missions and posts between Monclova, Mexico, and Los Adaes, the first capital of the province of Texas (in what is now the Robeline/Natchitoches area in northwestern Louisiana. The trail runs about 1,000 miles long from its easternmost point in Natchitoches, Louisiana, through the piney woods and rolling hills of Texas to the arid lands of Old Mexico. The Camino Real is truly a path that leads through history.
Today much of the original El Camino is still visible, lying along scenic rural roads with some of the most spectacular scenery in Texas and Louisiana. Travelers can follow in the footsteps of Spanish missionaries (from 1691), the Mexican and Texan armies (1835), American settlers, and personages such as Kit Carson, Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie, Sam Houston, Santa Anna, Stephen F. Austin and many more.
The “Sale on the Trail” event, planned and promoted by the El Camino Real
Caddo Region Trail Partners, which includes the Nacogdoches Convention & Visitors, has been scheduled to promote tourism and acquaint participants with the beautiful highway so important to early history in Louisiana and Texas.
Land owners and businesses from Natchitoches, La. to Crockett, TX will hold yard sales, flea markets, festivals, trade shows, sidewalk sales, etc. along this famous trail, providing a wonderful weekend of touring and shopping. Anyone in Nacogdoches interested in setting up downtown should contact the Main Street office at 936-559-2573.
Historic Downtown Nacogdoches will participate by hosting their “First Saturday Sidewalk Sale” on Saturday, May 2nd, 2009. Merchants will feature a variety of great finds, unique specialty items, and one of kind antiques.
Those interested in participating in this first annual “Sale on the Trail” are encouraged to take advantage of a great chance to shop, sell, or see the
sites on the remarkable El Camino Real.
For more information, please contact Liz Ware, San Augustine Chamber of Commerce Director, at (936)275-3610, or Ellen Melton, El Camino Real Trail Partners representative in Sabine County at (409) 625-4876. You may also check out these websites:
http://www.elcaminorealtx.com/trailPartners.html
http://www.sanaugustinetx.com/
http://www.visitnacogdoches.org
