Free State of Sabine

Nobody governed the strip between the Sabine River and Arroyo Hondo after late 1806, when American and Spanish commanders agreed that neither side would garrison it or admit settlers. People came anyway: squatters, deserters, bandits working the Camino Real, and people who had freed themselves from slavery. It also served as a staging ground for filibusters. Joint Spanish and American expeditions cleared it in 1810, and in March 1812 Zebulon Pike sent an American force in without Spanish cooperation. The Adams-Onis Treaty line along the Sabine ended the arrangement in 1821.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Jesup State Historic Site — 12 mi
  The 1822 army post Zachary Taylor built to hold the Neutral Ground between Louisiana and Spanish Texas, with the one surviving kitchen, a reconstructed officers' quarters and a museum open Friday to Sunday.
• North Toledo Bend State Park — 18 mi
  A 900-acre park on the Louisiana shore of the 186,000-acre Toledo Bend Reservoir, with trails, disc golf and cabins, near the flooded sites of Pine Flat and other Sabine Parish communities.
• Los Adaes State Historic Site — 21 mi
  The Spanish presidio that was the capital of Texas from 1729 to 1770, some 15 miles from French Natchitoches, now an archaeological site where Native pottery is the most abundant find.
• Red Hills Lake Recreation Area — 22 mi
  A 19-acre Sabine National Forest lake completed by the CCC in 1940 near Milam, a short drive from Toledo Bend Reservoir, with a swimming beach, fishing and camping from May through October.

More markers nearby

• Village of Fisher — 3.5 mi
• Baldwin's Store — 8.8 mi
• El Camino Real — 12 mi
• Pendleton Crossing — 15 mi