Fredericksburg, TX to Brownsville, TX (Hwy 181 to Sinton, Hwy 77 to Brownsville)
San Antonio, TX, is the seventh largest city in the United States and long-time readers know that I tend to avoid such large metropolitan areas because negotiating busy city streets in the Lunch Box can be challenging. Occasionally I find a situation that allows me to do a little exploration of a big city and this turns out to be one of those! I find a RV Park that is relatively close to the central city but easily reached off the interstate and, most importantly, on a direct city bus route into the center. Thus I can park the Lunch Box at the campground, jump on a bus right at the entrance to the RV Park, and be downtown in 30 minutes. Taking advantage of the situation I make a quick stop in eastern San Antonio and head downtown to visit two of the “head-liner” attractions of San Antonio (it also helps that the weather is spectacular, mid-70’s under sunny skies!)
San Antonio de Valero was founded by the Spanish on the banks of the San Antonio River in 1718 as a mission and military outpost. A mile north of the mission a fort was built and over the next 30 years a complex was built up the included walled enclosures for protection as well as the initial construction of a church. The church was intended to include two bell towers but they were never built. A small settlement quickly grew up near the mission and the first city in Texas was chartered in 1731. The area remained part of Mexico until the mid-1830’s when Texans rebelled against Mexico and eventually prevailed, declaring the independent Republic of Texas in 1836. The United States annexed the republic ten years later and Texas entered the Union in 1846 as the 28th state. A key battle in the war with Mexico took play in San Antonio at one of the most hallowed sites in Texas, the Alamo.
The Alamo
In the early 1800’s a military company from Alamo de Parris in Mexico was assigned to the fort and locals gradually began referring to the complex as the “Alamo.” Years later during the rebellion of the Texans against the Mexicans the Alamo served as a key position supporting the rebels. The famous “Battle of the Alamo” occurred over several weeks in early 1836 with a siege lasting 13 days ultimately culminating in the total defeat and death of the rebel forces. The defeat served as a temporary setback for the rebellion as the cry “Remember the Alamo” rallied the rebel forces across the area and inspired their eventual victory. The actual complex was essentially destroyed during the battle and served as a supply depot for the US Army until 1883 when the state of Texas purchased the site for a state monument. The Daughters of the Republic of Texas served as custodians of the site until 2011 when the custodianship of the land was transferred by the state government to the Texas General Land Office. During the tenure of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas the site was restored and today sits in the center of downtown San Antonio and beats as the spiritual heart of Texas. Evidence of that passion and reverence is immediately visible through the crowds as floral arrangements on the plaza in front of the church honor the fallen.
A tourist map of the plaza gives a birds-eye view of the layout of the site. The reconstruction is the large outline on the left, the rectangle on the right is an overlay of fortifications that existed at the time of the battle but do not now exist.
An illustration of the battle gives another perspective of the plaza. Today’s reconstruction is just the complex in the upper right (two walled courtyards and the church.)
A large oak tree that must have sprouted shortly after the battle dominates the larger courtyard while the long building fronting the plaza originally formed housing for the inhabitants of the mission.
The smaller courtyard served as the stables and livestock area, today it is a lush oasis in the middle of San Antonio.
In 1936 the Daughters of the Republic built a museum on the site of the Long Barracks. Today it serves as one of the classier gift shops that you’ll ever visit…
On the other side of the church from the gift shop is a small museum, again set in lush gardens.
Photography is forbidden in the interior of the church out of respect for the fallen. A few impressions are that it only the shell of the church (minimal interior furnishings), is relatively small and clearly hallowed ground. The open plaza in front of the Alamo is home to throngs of visitors and interspersed amongst them are actors portraying various characters from this historic past.
North of the plaza are government buildings, most built in the first half of the 20th century, west of the plaza across Alamo Street are buildings from around the turn of the century.
The line of historic buildings west of the plaza front on Alamo Street but their rear faces the other of the “must-see” areas in San Antonio, the famed River Walk.
The River Walk
The genesis of River Walk occurred in 1921 when a disastrous flood took over 50 lives in San Antonio and prompted the development of a flood control plan that included bypassing a bend in the river in the heart of San Antonio and paving it over. Locals protested and, while the flood control project went forward, the part of the plan that eliminated the bend in the river was dropped. Instead a local architect Robert Hugman developed a plan that preserved the bend in the river and lined it with sidewalks, shops and restaurants. The plan languished until the late 1930’s when a WPA project created sidewalks, bridges and plantings along the 2.5 mile bend. The area still did not flourish until 1968 when the San Antonio World Fair opened just southeast of the River Walk and an extension of the river was built into the site. Quickly large hotels grew in the immediate area as well as a huge convention center and an accompanying redevelopment of shops, restaurants and bars occurred along the River Walk, creating what is now a premier tourist destination.
The River Walk is below street level, this morning view is from one of the street bridges over the water.
I walked by and visited the Alamo before returning to the River Walk via access directly across from the Alamo Plaza that actually goes under the Mariott Hotel. One doesn’t just walk down a set of stairs, one descends through a dazzling display of nature and water. Follow me…
I emerge from under the Marriott into an urban canyon of verdant growth, water and a growing sense of energy as the lunch hour approaches.
Again, just a quick visit to two of the many attractions in the San Antonio metropolitan area. Having dabbled in the big city, I resume the journey south. The transition from the Texas Hills Country to the flat coastal plain happens in an hour’s drive.
South of San Antonio the coastal plain blends into the Wild Horse Desert, a huge expanse of southern Texas that consists of most of the interior of the “tip” of Texas that rolls on under a blanket of mesquite, brush, cactus and sand. There is little surface water but southwest of Corpus Christi in 1853 Captain Richard King found a spring-fed oasis in the middle of the desert and established the beginnings of one of the legendary spreads of the West, the King Ranch. Today the King Ranch controls over 825,000 acres of land, larger than the state of Rhode Island, and continues as one of the largest agri-businesses in the Southwest.
Kingsville, TX
The wide open spaces of the Wild Horse Desert proved to be good ranging land for cattle and the King Ranch quickly grew to be the dominant force in the area. King was one of the first to trail huge herds of cattle north to the markets of the Midwest. The King Ranch became known as the birthplace of American ranching due to innovations pioneered on the ranch involving cattle and horse breeding, animal disease control, the development of drilling of artesian wells and sound pasture management. The exploitation of underground water led to irrigation and the King Ranch became known for growing cotton as well as cattle. Captain King died in 1885 and his wife Henrietta became a powerful matriarch controlling an empire. The advent of railroads made the King’s want to have access to rail transport and around 1900 Henrietta King deeded a small portion of the ranch about three miles east of the main house for the construction of a town. The railroad came to the area in 1904 and Kingsville was founded the same year.
The 1904 train depot is now a museum (closed on the day I visited) and a portion is still in use by the railroad as a dispatch office.
Home to the Kingsville Naval Air Station and a branch of Texas A&M University, Kingsville is now home to around 26,000 people. There is surprisingly little retail and commercial development for a city of such size and the small historic downtown core is rather run-down and sprinkled with empty storefronts. Most of the buildings date from the early 1900’s.
The exception to the general “shabbiness” of the main street is the large brick building on the corner in the first picture.
Built in 1909 as the Ragland Mercantile Building, the first floor now houses the King Ranch Saddle Shop. The King Ranch saddle shop began on the ranch in 1853 and created numerous items for use on the ranch, in particular saddles. It has moved to the main corner of downtown and is now a rather exclusive shop selling King Ranch branded western wear.
In the center of the shop is a work area where saddles are built.
Just north of the depot is a small museum about the King Ranch.
A movie detailing the history of the ranch is really the main attraction, but accompanying it are saddle, gun and ranch vehicle displays.
From 1939-1944 photographer Toni Frissell did a visual essay documenting life on the ranch, including this photograph of a cattle drive.
Captain King established a weaving shop on the ranch in 1856 where saddle blankets, rugs and other items were created from wool produced on the ranch. This 1940 pictures shows Emiliano Garcia, who began weaving blankets on the ranch in 1934.
King Ranch saddle blankets were about 5 feet long and 3 feet wide and were not dyed, instead designs were made with natural colored wool from white, black and gray sheep. Each saddle blanket used about 26 pounds or wool. The weaving shop produced about 40 saddle blankets per year, using looms like the one on display.
The brand of the King Ranch is the “Running W” and was featured on saddle blankets. An actual cattle brand is on display. The brand was first recorded in 1869 by Captain King.
The King Ranch is still an active, working ranch and while one can tour the ranch on guided tours, visits to the main house (which is really quite impressive as seen in the movie) are not permitted. Back exploring Kingsville I am puzzled by the relatively little commercial area. The usual modern clutter of chain restaurants, etc., line Hwy 77 as it passes by to the east but natives tell me that they go to Corpus Christi, about 40 miles northeast, for major shopping and entertainment.
Leaving Kingsville, the road plunges south through the interior of the Wild Horse Desert. There is a stretch of 60 miles where there are no services for the traveler at all, just miles and miles of flat mesquite and brush. I am a little bit startled to periodically see bright blue barrels with about a 20’ tall flagpole waving in the wind sitting beside the highway. Turns out they are stashes of emergency water for the unlucky traveler… I forge on and, while the land continues to be essentially flat, at Raymondsville I emerge into the Garden of Eden that is the lower Rio Grande Valley, or the “RGV”. Much like California’s Central Valley, irrigation has made the area one of the leading producers of fruit and vegetables in the United States.
Next up: The RGV
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