Spanish Exploration in Medina County

Alonso de León, governor of Coahuila, passed through in 1689 and named the Medina River and Hondo and Seco creeks; he wrote that he named the river for Pedro Medina, the Spanish engineer whose navigation tables he used to map his route with an astrolabe. Other old maps call it the Río Mariano, Río San José or Río de Bagres, Catfish River, and for a time it was taken as the boundary between Texas and Coahuila. Terán's route of 1691 laid the foundation for the Camino Real across southern Medina County.

What the plaque says

Spanish Exploration in Medina County By 1531 Spain ruled present Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, half of South America, and much of the United States. The desire to claim new lands north of the Rio Grande led to continuous Spanish expeditions through present Texas during the 16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries. The expedition of Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca traveled through Texas between 1526 and 1537, exploring and mapping the unknown territory. Later Spanish expeditions, which established missions, presidios (forts), and townships, included those led by Alonso de Leon; Father Manuel de la Cruz; Father Juan Larios and Fernando del Bosque; Domingo Teran de los Rios; and Father Isidro de Espinosa. At least twenty Spanish expeditions led by soldiers, missionaries, and settlers crossed present Medina County before 1844. Detailed descriptions of the area appear in the official accounts of many of the expeditions. Many of the county's geographical features retain the names given them by Spanish explorers of the 16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries. Spanish names associated with early settlements, sites, rivers, and streams serve as reminders of the rich Spanish heritage of the area now known as Medina County. (1989)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Landmark Inn State Historic Site — 14 mi
  A store and stage stop at the Medina River ford in Henri Castro's Alsatian town, with a mill race under the ground and rooms you can still rent for the night.
• San Antonio Missions National Historical Park — 31 mi
  Four working parish churches on the Mission Trail south of downtown, with the visitor center at Mission San Jose, the Queen of the Missions, and the descendants who still worship there.
• Mission Concepción — 31 mi
  A stone church dedicated in 1755 that has never fallen into ruin, its convento ceilings still painted, and the ground where the Texas Revolution's fight for San Antonio began.
• King William Historic District — 32 mi
  Mission farmland turned German merchants' quarter on the San Antonio River, renamed in World War I, then saved by a neighbor who restored fourteen houses, starting with his own.

More markers nearby

• First Baptist Church of Devine — 2.5 mi
• Judge Thomas L. Devine (1820-1890) — 2.7 mi
• Robert Lee Bobbitt — 7.3 mi
• City Hotel — 13 mi