C.S.A. Home Front Producer George Wilkins Kendall

Kendall's account of the Santa Fe expedition sold widely. Captured with the expedition near Tucumcari, he was marched to Mexico City and held in a leper colony, and the Picayune printed twenty-three of his letters before friends won his release in May 1842. His Narrative of the Texan Santa Fe Expedition, published in 1844, ran to 900 pages and sold 40,000 copies in eight years; Frederick Marryat had already lifted much of it for a novel. He married Adeline de Valcourt in Paris in 1849 and published The War between the United States and Mexico in 1851.

What the plaque says

C.S.A. Home Front Producer George Wilkins Kendall (1809 - 1867) A molder of world opinion. His theme: Greatness of Texas. Born in New Hampshire. Learned printing and worked in New York, Boston and Washington, D.C. With Francis A. Lumsden, in 1837 founded New Orleans "Picayune". Joined the Texan-Santa Fe Expedition, 1841, as a reporter. Was imprisoned along with other ill-fated members. Wrote a book on the expedition. During Mexican War, 1846-1848, often rode with the Texas Rangers, in world's first war coverage by a foreign correspondent; filed his news by Pony Express. In 1847 settled on Texas sheep range, at Post Oak Springs. Continuing news columns brought him in a single mail 300 letters from far away as Sandwich Islands, inquiring about Texas. During the Civil War, produced wool for Confederate uniforms, blankets. Proposed a weaving mill on Comal River, for making cloth near the flocks. Received no government response. To keep producing wool, had to fight Comanches, range fires, freezing disasters. When roaming vandals threatened to kill shepherds, he and his teenage son tended flocks themselves. To end of his life, his regular dispatches to the "Picayune" continued to praise good life in Texas. (1965)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Lyndon B. Johnson State Park and Historic Site — 20 mi
  A state park on the Pedernales opposite the LBJ Ranch, with a working Texas-German farm kept as it was around the First World War and the permit desk for the ranch tour.
• Old Tunnel State Park — 20 mi
  A railroad tunnel abandoned in 1942 that now shelters up to three million Mexican free-tailed bats, who fly out each evening from May through October.
• Luckenbach — 20 mi
  A store, saloon and dance hall on Grape Creek that a humorist bought in 1971, declared a free state of mind, and turned into a pilgrimage for Texas music.
• Natural Bridge Caverns — 22 mi
  The largest known cavern in Texas, found in 1960 by four college cavers under a ranch family's land, entered beneath a 60-foot limestone bridge and still growing.

More markers nearby

• The Hon. Samuel Boyd Patton — 2.9 mi
• Specht's Crossing — 7.4 mi
• The Engel Store — 10 mi
• Jesse L. McCrocklin — 11 mi