Site of Mission Santa Cruz de San Saba

The mission site was found in the fall of 1993 on land owned by Dionitia and Otis Lyckman and proved by archeologists in January 1994, the Handbook of Texas says, more than a mile east of the 1936 monument. Kathleen Gilmore and Dessamae Lorrain had begun the search in 1965; the find grew from genealogical research by Mark Wolf, a descendant of a soldier assigned to the mission. Grant D. Hall of Texas Tech directed the 1993 work, which recovered more than 300 Spanish artifacts, among them musket balls, religious ornaments and majolica shards.

What the plaque says

Founded among the Lipan Apache Indians by Franciscan Missionaries in 1757 through the financial aid of the Count of Regla. Sacked and left in ruins by the Comanches in 1758. Here perished Padres Alonso Giraldo de Terreros and Jose Santiesteban, martyrs to the Christian cause.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Presidio de San Saba — 3.9 mi
  The ruins of the largest Spanish presidio in Texas, built in 1757 to guard a mission to the Lipan Apache, where the Comanche and their allies first turned back Spain's frontier.
• Fort McKavett State Historic Site — 23 mi
  The post Sherman called the prettiest in Texas, home to soldiers of all four Buffalo Soldier regiments and then to a town that lived in its buildings until 1973.

More markers nearby

• Fort McKavett, C.S.A. — 2.9 mi
• Paso de la Santa Cruz — 2.9 mi
• The Ditch — 3.0 mi
• Puerto de Baluartes (Haven of the Strong Points) — 3.1 mi