Historical Marker
In this vicinity extended the Vial-Fragoso Trail
Lindale, Smith County · Texas
Erected 1936
Pedro Vial left Santa Fe on June 24, 1788, guiding a party sent to find a more direct road to Natchitoches. Francisco Xavier Fragoso kept the diary under superior orders, and soldiers under Santiago Fernandez escorted the group to the Taovaya villages, where Fernandez turned back for New Mexico on July 24. Vial set out again on July 25 and reached Natchitoches on August 20, 1788. He went on to San Antonio and was back in Santa Fe by August 20, 1789, after more than 2,400 miles.
What the plaque says
In this vicinity extended the Vial-Fragoso Trail In this vicinity extended the Vial-Fragoso Trail Blazed in 1788 by Pierre Vial and Francisco Xavier Fragoso on their way from Santa Fe, New Mexico, to Natchitoches, Louisiana Erected by the State of Texas 1936
Where it stands
32.58521, -95.48115 · Directions
Worth the stop nearby
- Tyler State Park — 14 miA 985-acre park eight miles north of Tyler, built by the Civilian Conservation Corps from 1935 to 1941 around a 64-acre spring-fed lake, with more than 13 miles of trails.
- Governor Hogg Shrine — 14 miQuitman's 27-acre city park, once a state historical park, where two houses tied to James Stephen Hogg's marriage stand beside an arboretum, a nature walk and the grounds of the Old Settlers Reunion.
- Camp Ford Historic Park — 18 miA free county park north of Tyler on the site of the largest Confederate prison camp west of the Mississippi, with a kiosk, an interpretive trail and a historical society museum downtown.
- Tyler Rose Garden and Rose Museum — 19 miMore than 38,000 rose bushes of about 600 cultivars in a free city garden, beside a museum of the Texas Rose Festival, which began in 1933, and of the rose industry.