[Congressional Bills 103th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2160 Introduced in House (IH)]

103d CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2160

 To amend the National Trails System Act to provide for a study of El 
  Camino Real Para Los Texas (The Royal Road for the Texas), and for 
                            other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 19, 1993

  Mr. Wilson introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                     Committee on Natural Resources

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend the National Trails System Act to provide for a study of El 
  Camino Real Para Los Texas (The Royal Road for the Texas), and for 
                            other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``El Camino Real Para Los Texas Study 
Act of 1993''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds that--
            (1) El Camino Real Para Los Texas was the Spanish road 
        established to connect a series of missions and posts extending 
        from Monclova, Mexico, to the mission and later Presidio 
        Nuestra de Pilar de los Adaes which served as the Spanish 
        capital of the province of Texas from 1722 to 1772;
            (2) El Camino Real, over time, comprised an approximately 
        1,000 mile corridor of changing routes from Saltillo through 
        Monclova and Guerrero, Mexico; San Antonio and Nacogdoches, 
        Texas, and then easterly to the vicinity of Los Adaes in 
        present day Louisiana; and constituted the only major overland 
        route from the Rio Grande to the Red River Valley during the 
        Spanish Colonial Period;
            (3) the 17th, 18th, and early 19th century rivalries among 
        the European colonial powers of Spain, France, and England, and 
        after their independence, Mexico and the United States, for 
        dominion over lands fronting the Gulf of Mexico were played out 
        along the evolving travel routes across this immense area, and, 
        as well, the future of several American Indian nations were 
        tied to these larger forces and events;
            (4) El Camino Real and the subsequent San Antonio Road 
        witnessed a competition that helped determine the United 
        States' southern and western boundaries; and
            (5) the San Antonio Road, like El Camino Real, was a series 
        of routes established over the same broad corridor but was not 
        necessarily the same as El Camino Real, and from the 1830s, 
        waves of American immigrants, many using the Natches Trace, 
        travelled west to Texas and its cheap and accessible lands via 
        the San Antonio Road.

SEC. 3. DESIGNATION OF TRAIL.

    Section 5(c) of the National Trails System Act (16 U.S.C. 1244(c)) 
is amended by adding the following new paragraph at the end thereof:
            ``(  ) El Camino Real Para Los Texas, the approximate 
        series of routes coursing northeasterly from Saltillo, 
        Monclova, and Guerrero, Mexico, across Texas through San 
        Antonio and Nacogdoches, to the vicinity of Los Adaes, 
        Louisiana, together with the evolving routes later known as the 
        San Antonio Road. The study shall (A) examine the changing 
        roads within the general corridor, (B) examine major connecting 
        branch routes, and (C) determine individual or combined 
        suitability and feasibility of routes for national historic 
        trail designation. The study shall be done in cooperation with 
        the Government of Mexico and shall provide for, as necessary, 
        technical assistance to Mexico with the possible objective of 
        establishing an international historic trail. The study shall 
        give due consideration to alternative name designations.''.

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