La Bahia Trail

The trail met the Brazos where another river ends. The Handbook of Texas says the road was thought to cross the Brazos at the mouth of the Navasota River, which joins it six miles southwest of town after a 125-mile run from Hill County. The river's name probably came from Indians as Nabasoto; Domingo Teran de los Rios called it San Cypriano, Espinosa and Aguayo San Buenaventura, and Pedro de Rivera y Villalon fixed Navasota in 1727. Settlers used it as a road of its own until the railroads cut river traffic by 1860.

What the plaque says

La Bahia Trail Originally an Indian trail through Southern Texas and Louisiana; known to Spanish explorers as early as 1690, when the De Leon Expedition passed this site on the way from Mexico to East Texas. With 115 men, 721 horses, 82 loads of flour, and other supplies, Alonso de Leon, Governor of Coahuila, and Father Massanet, a Franciscan priest, entered the wilds of Texas. The purpose of the expedition was to discourage French encroachment from the north, as well as to explore, colonize, and Christianize the Indians. They followed the rugged trail from the present town of Refugio to Goliad and continued northeast to Navasota, probably following Cedar Creek through this town. Then they journeyed north until reaching the Neches River, where (near present Weches) they founded the Mission of San Francisco de Los Tejas. The church was called after the Tejas, or "Friendly" Indians, whose name was eventually given to the entire state. Although de Leon's party went no farther on the western section of the trail, known as Atascosito Road, the eastern section extended into Louisiana. In nineteenth century, the route gained importance as a cattle trail, the Opelousas Road, that moved Texas herds to market in the north and east. (1967)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Navasota — steps away
  A railroad and cotton town where the La Bahia Road crossed the Navasota River, scarred by an 1865 explosion and yellow fever, and the home ground of the songster Mance Lipscomb.
• Star of the Republic Museum — 5.9 mi
  A star-shaped museum of the Republic of Texas years, 1836 to 1846, built at Washington-on-the-Brazos after a Brenham campaign and opened on March 1, 1970.
• Washington-on-the-Brazos State Historic Site — 5.9 mi
  The townsite on the Brazos where delegates met in a cold, unfinished hall in March 1836 to declare Texas independent, with Independence Hall rebuilt and Anson Jones's Barrington farm worked as in 1850.
• Fanthorp Inn State Historic Site — 9.0 mi
  A cedar-log dogtrot cabin of 1834 on the road through Anderson that grew into a seventeen-room inn and post office for travelers of the Republic, kept by one family until 1976.

More markers nearby

• Mickelborough Building — steps away
• Lewis J. Wilson Building — steps away
• The Giesel House — steps away
• Saint Paul's Episcopal Church — 0.2 mi