Old Spanish Trail Highway | Texas Historical Commission

Evoking the early Spanish conquistadors, explorers, and missionaries who came to Texas and other southern states centuries ago, the historic named highway known as the Old Spanish Trail (OST) includes segments of some of the oldest roads and trails in Texas. Spanning the nation from St. Augustine, Florida to San Diego, California, the OST took a more southerly route than the Bankhead Highway and was touted as the shortest transcontinental highway in the United States, especially when compare to the Lincoln Highway, which extends from coast to coast across the nation's mid-section. The OST enters Texas at Beaumont, passing through Houston and San Antonio before leaving Texas via El Paso, with various alignments.

Impetus for the creation of the highway stems from the efforts of a group of individuals, primarily from Florida and Alabama, who met in Mobile, Alabama, in 1915 to create the Old Spanish Trail Association. It was one of many such auto trails groups established around the county as part of the Good Roads movement that promoted improvements to and expansion of the nation's highways. The route quickly assumed a leading role in Texas' emerging highway system, in part, because it traveled to not only some of the state's most important nodes of military installations and industrial centers, but also some of the state's best known tourist destinations, parks, and recreational centers.

The historic highway has largely been subsumed into IH 10, which often follows historic alignments associated with the road. Segments of the historic roadway still exist on segments of varying lengths that parallel the interstate highway. Nonetheless, of all the named highways in Texas, the OST arguably has retained its historic identity to a highest degree because of its direct link to the state's rich history. The sense of pride that Texans have enjoyed and appreciated through the state's history contributed to the enduring quality of the name Old Spanish Trail, and the term is still used in Houston and other cities along its route.

To read the Old Spanish Trail Highway history, click on this Old Spanish Trail Historic Context (3MB) to download.

Explore the Old Spanish Trail in Google Earth

To see the historical alignments for the Old Spanish Trail Highway, download this Google Earth file.

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Old Spanish Trail, US 90 to Interstate 10, Columbus, Colorado County (7 MB)
The Old Spanish Trail (OST) segment immediately east of the Colorado River near Columbus is a 1.4-mile-long section of a state highway built in 1920-21. The listed road runs between business routes US 90 at the western terminus, and the north access road to Interstate 10, which later served as the main line of US 90 before the construction of the interstate highway.

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East Navidad River Bridge, east of Schulenburg, Fayette County (7 MB)
The 1922 East Navidad River Bridge is a 199-foot-long concrete cantilever bridge on FM 1579 east of Schulenburg, Texas. It consists of two-curved cantilever arms supported on skewed concrete piers and abutments, with a 70-foot-long center arch span. Simple concrete slab and girder spans serve as approaches at each end of the bridge. The open-style railings are of a modified “Type C” design, with concrete posts and two-beam rail divided by battered concrete pedestals. The bridge has a total width of 21 feet and 2 inches, with an 18-foot roadway. Designed by Texas Highway Department engineer A.T. Granger, this graceful crossing retains a good degree of integrity.

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Flatonia Commercial Historic District, Fayette County (6 MB)
The Flatonia Historic District is a roughly 36-acre commercial and industrial district located in Flatonia, Texas, a town in southwestern Fayette County between San Antonio and Houston. Flatonia was incorporated in 1875 along the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railroad (now Union Pacific Railroad), and the railroad tracks bisect the historic district, separating it into roughly two halves with adjacent properties being oriented toward the railway. The majority of the resources are one- and two-part commercial block buildings constructed of locally sourced stone or brick with façades representative of the time. These buildings, which were mostly erected during the late 19th century and early 20th century, illustrate Flatonia’s primary periods of development and reflect the commercial architecture trends of the area. Some of the district’s storefronts were modernized during the period of significance, illustrating the way in which commercial enterprises adapted to changes in consumerism over time. On the perimeter of the district are a number of late 19th century and early 20th century industrial buildings that are strictly utilitarian in design. In total, there are 74 resources (69 buildings, 1 site, and 4 structures), of which 60 are contributing and 14 are noncontributing.

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Fort Clark Historic District, Kinney County (16 MB)
Established in June 1852 as one of a series of protective military posts along the old El Paso Road, Fort Clark in Kinney County stands today representative of the frontier forts established regularly with westward expansion during the last half of the 19th century. Through its years as a military post, the fort was continually enlarged and improved to meet the changing needs of the Army. This evolution of the fort is reflected in the structures remaining today, which date from approximately 1857 to the 1930s and embody a wide variety of structural techniques and materials. Despite the change in ownership and ultimately usage, the fort still presents the character of a 19th century cavalry station.

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Fort Lancaster Historic District, Crockett County (5 MB)
Fort Lancaster had as its primary function the protection of settlers and travelers going between Texas and California. Its location in the Pecos River Valley was strategically placed at the Pecos crossing on the old military road between San Antonio and El Paso. When it was initially constructed and occupied in August 1855, the first buildings were crude, makeshift portable shelters. These less substantial building were soon to give way to more substantial ones though, so that by 1860, the peak of the fort's existence, most of the buildings were made of stone and adobe. Ruins of 29 buildings can be identified at the fort today. Until 1861, Lancaster was a Federal post, then it was closed with the onset of the Civil War. For a brief time, it served as a Confederate garrison, but was soon abandoned for the duration of the war. In 1871, during the Kiowa-Comanche uprising, the fort was reactivated as a sub-post by the federal government; shortly thereafter, in 1873 or 1874 after the Indian trouble had subsided, the fort was decommissioned. (Designated as RTHL, SAL)

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Fort Stockton Historic District, Pecos County (10 MB)
Fort Stockton was one of several Army outposts established along the western frontier of Texas in 1858 to defend and protect the new settlers from Indian hostilities. It was strategically placed at Comanche Springs, a major source of water for both Indian and settler. The primary responsibility of the post was the protection of the San Antonio-San Diego stage line. The fort figured in one of the most colorful aspects of military history -- U. S. Secretary of War Jefferson Davis' camel experiment. For a brief time before the Civil War, a contingent of the camel detachment was stationed at the fort. Stockton thrived until the outbreak of the Civil War when it was abandoned to the Confederate forces. In 1868 when it was reactivated, the fort had to be completely rebuilt. The extant structures of the fort and settlement are remainders of this period. Until its abandonment in 1886, the fort provided a resting stop between the long haul from El Paso to points south and southeast, such as forts Clark, Inge, Sam Houston, and those south Texas forts, such as McIntosh and Ringgold.

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Seguin Commercial Historic District, Guadalupe County (11 MB)
The Seguin Commercial Historic District is a notable example of a turn-of-the-century business district in a small Texas city. The high concentration of later Victorian architecture and the relative lack of new construction and major exterior changes give the district its early 20th-century appearance. Seguin is also notable for an early and extensive use of concrete as a building material, and some of these 19th-century buildings survive in the district. Founded in 1838 as Walnut Springs, Seguin has been the commercial and governmental center of Guadalupe County almost since its inception.