Great Spanish Road, First Ranch in Potter County, First Store in Potter County

The man sent to find the road took the long way. Pedro Vial, born in Lyons, France, left San Antonio on October 4, 1786, under orders from Governor Domingo Cabello to find the most direct route to Santa Fe, with one companion, Cristóbal de los Santos, and a diary to keep. Ill and perhaps lost, he went north past the Tawakoni villages near present Waco, lived for a time with the Taovayas on the Red River, then followed the Red and the Canadian west, reaching Santa Fe on May 26, 1787, after about 1,000 miles.

What the plaque says

GREAT SPANISH ROAD Near course of the Canadian River, early as days of the American Revolution, men from Santa Fe went past this spot on trips to meet traders from San Augustine, Nacogdoches, and other Spanish towns of East Texas. In 1786, Pedro Vial was commissioned by the Spanish Governor at Santa Fe to establish this route, and secure direct connection from Santa Fe to San Antonio, Texas, with access to East Texas towns. The Great Spanish Road served well colonial Texas and foreshadowed 20th century usage of the route for a segment of a great intercontinental highway. FIRST RANCH IN POTTER COUNTY Established 1877 at point 1 1/2 miles east of this site, by Bates and Beals, northern investors. Ran the LX Brand, and once had a cowboy named Will Rogers--later internationally famous as a humorist. FIRST STORE IN POTTER COUNTY Opened 1878 a few hundred feet west of this marker, by William Pitcher, whose name was given to nearby creek, and who figured in a desperate robbery from which LX cowhands rescued him. (1965)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument — 12 mi
  Hand-dug pits on a mesa above the Canadian River where people quarried banded flint for thousands of years and traded it across the Plains, seen on a ranger-led climb.
• Route 66 Sixth Street Historic District — 18 mi
  Thirteen blocks of Amarillo's streetcar suburb that Route 66 turned into a roadside strip, from the 1922 Nat to Texaco, Phillips and Dutch Mill stations, now shops and bars.
• Helium Centennial Time Columns Monument — 19 mi
  Four sealed time capsules raised in Amarillo in 1968 for helium's centennial, in the city that for years produced almost all the world's commercial helium from the Cliffside field.
• Lake Meredith National Recreation Area — 20 mi
  A Canadian River reservoir in 200-foot breaks, built to water the Panhandle's cities, that fell to a record 26 feet deep in 2013 and still rises and falls with the drought.

More markers nearby

• The Canadian River — steps away
• First Cemetery in Potter County — steps away
• The United States Topographical Engineers in the High Plains of Texas — 1.6 mi
• The LX, First Ranch in Potter County — 1.6 mi