Site of Mission Nuestra Senora del Espiritu Santo de Zuniga

Mission Valley is the oldest community in Victoria County, and its story did not stop when the friars left. The first land grant recorded in the county went to Eben Haven, a DeWitt colonist who settled here in 1831. José María Carbajal, who laid out Guadalupe Victoria for De León, and Elijah Stapp, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, are named among its residents. Margaret Wright, whom Sam Houston called the Mother of Texas, also lived in the area. The marker site is on private property, so do not look for a way in.

What the plaque says

Site of Mission Nuestra Senora del Espiritu Santo de Zuniga First established at Garcitas Creek by the Marques de Aguayo and Father Fray Agustin Patron, O.F.M. in 1722. Moved to Mission Valley in 1726. Maintained here by the Franciscan missionaries for the Christanizing and civilizing of the Jaraname and other Indians. Finally moved to present Goliad in 1749. Erected by the State of Texas 1936

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• De León Plaza — 9.0 mi
  The central plaza of Guadalupe Victoria, the only predominantly Mexican colony in Texas, founded by Martín De León in 1824 and taken from his family after 1836.
• Museum of the Coastal Bend — 9.5 mi
  Victoria College's museum of thirteen thousand years on the middle Texas coast, from Clovis hunters and Karankawa potters to La Salle's lost Fort St. Louis and the first ranches.
• Fannin Battleground State Historic Site — 15 mi
  The open prairie east of Goliad where Fannin's retreating column formed a square short of the Coleto Creek timber on March 19, 1836, and surrendered the next day.
• Chisholm Trail Heritage Museum — 18 mi
  A cattle-country museum in Cuero's 1903 Knights of Pythias Hall, telling the Guadalupe Valley's 1866 drive north and the Sutton-Taylor feud that bloodied DeWitt County.

More markers nearby

• Mission Espiritu Santo Cattle Ranch — 1.1 mi
• El Camino Real in Victoria County — 3.4 mi
• Camp Henry E. McCullouch — 6.3 mi
• Camp Victoria — 7.1 mi