Site of the Town of Mount Sterling

Mount Sterling was a river port with a toll bridge. The Handbook of Texas says John M. Durst's settlement of 1837 included a bridge over the Angelina that linked two sections of El Camino Real, the Old San Antonio Road. In 1838 he contracted to buy $30,000 worth of merchandise for early settlers. A post office operated from 1837 to 1840. The Handbook adds that the site has also been called Aldridge's, Goodman's Crossing and Mount Huling, and that the town was abandoned within a few years of Durst's move to Leon County about 1840.

What the plaque says

Site of the Town of Mount Sterling Established by John Durst in 1837. Near the ruins of the Mission La Purisima Concepcion de Maria he built a saw and grist mill; in the town, a large warehouse. From his house he could see the boats moored to the wharves on the Angelina. The Cordova Rebellion in 1838 sealed the doom of the town. Durst moved to Leon County. Erected by the State of Texas 1936

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Caddo Mounds State Historic Site — 15 mi
  Three earthen mounds of an ancestral Caddo village and ceremonial center on the old El Camino Real, settled about A.D. 800 and still sacred to Caddo people, with a grass house and visitor center.

More markers nearby

• Presidio Nuestra Senora de Los Dolores — 1.3 mi
• John Joseph Bowman — 6.1 mi
• James H. Bowman — 6.1 mi
• Mt. Hope Cemetery — 6.1 mi