[Congressional Bills 103th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 983 Enrolled Bill (ENR)]

        S.983
                       One Hundred Third Congress

                                 of the

                        United States of America


                          AT THE FIRST SESSION

          Begun and held at the City of Washington on Tuesday,
  the fifth day of January, one thousand nine hundred and ninety-three


                                 An Act

  
 
  To amend the National Trails System Act to direct the Secretary of the 
Interior to study the El Camino Real Para Los Texas for potential 
addition to the National Trails System, 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--
        (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 seventeenth, eighteenth, and early nineteenth 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 corridor but was not necessarily 
    the same as El Camino Real; and that from the 1830's, waves of 
    American immigrants, many using the Natchez Trace, travelled west to 
    Texas via the San Antonio Road, as did Native Americans attempting 
    to relocate away from the pressures of European settlement.

SEC. 3. STUDY OF TRAIL.

    Section 5(c) of the National Trail System Act (16 U.S.C. 1244(c)) is 
amended by adding the following new paragraph at the end thereof:
    ``(36)(A) El Camino Real Para Los Texas, the approximate series of 
routes 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.
    ``(B) The study shall--
        ``(i) examine the changing roads within the historic corridor;
        ``(ii) examine the major connecting branch routes;
        ``(iii) determine the individual or combined suitability and 
    feasibility of routes for potential national historic trail 
    designation;
        ``(iv) consider the preservation heritage plan developed by the 
    Texas Department of Transportation entitled `A Texas Legacy: The Old 
    San Antonio Road and the Caminos Reales', dated January, 1991; and
        ``(v) make recommendations concerning the suitability and 
    feasibility of establishing an international historical park where 
    the trail crosses the United States-Mexico border at Maverick 
    County, Texas, and Guerrero, Mexico.
    ``(C) The Secretary of the Interior is authorized to work in 
cooperation with the government of Mexico (including, but not limited to 
providing technical assistance) to detemine the suitability and 
feasibility of establishing an international historic trail along the El 
Camino Real Para Los Texas.
    ``(D) The study shall be undertaken in consultation with the 
Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development and the Texas 
Department of Transportation.
    ``(E) The study shall consider alternative name designations for the 
trail.
    ``(F) The study shall be completed no later than two years after the 
date funds are made available for the study.''.

SEC. 4. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

    There are authorized to be appropriated such sums as are necessary 
to carry out this Act.







                                Speaker of the House of Representatives.







                             Vice President of the United States and    
                                                President of the Senate.