| Marker Text |
Beginning in the 1700s, the Camino Real de San Saba extended northwest from San Antonio through the Comanche and Apache-dominated Hill Country to the Spanish fort on the San Saba River named Presidio San Luis de las Amarillas. A portion of the trail was drawn on a Spanish-era map of the San Antonio Presidio in 1767 by Joseph de Urrutia. The path also became known as Camino Viejo (Spanish for “Old Trail”) in later documents. The San Saba Presidio officially closed in 1772.
Camino Real de San Saba and the Pinta Trail were two useful pathways into the Hill Country for Spanish Entradas, early explorers and later settlers. Early surveyors, including John “Jack” Coffee Hays and John James contributed to the documentation and preservation of the historic road’s alignment through their field notes and maps in Kendall County. The Pinta Trail a few miles to the east initially overshadowed the Camino San Saba in popularity, but both were used by German settlers from the 1840s onward. Alwin Sorgel recorded in 1847 that “there were two roads from San Antonio into the grant, the Camino Viejo going in a westerly direction and the Pindas Trail going in a northerly direction. The Indians used these trails for centuries.” German cartographer Hermann Willke drew an 1850 map depicting both trails. Camino real San Saba came down this hill and passed a half-mile west of Boerne’s Main Plaza, platted in 1852 by partners Gustav Theisen and John James. From there the pathway threaded a pre-Boerne settlement and further north, after going through Spanish Pass, crossed the Guadalupe River where Brownsboro sprang up. |
