Texan Santa Fe Expedition

The plaque names civil commissioners, but the Handbook shows who held command. Hugh McLeod led the military force, with George Thomas Howard second, over five infantry companies and one of artillery. Besides Cooke, Brenham and Navarro, George Van Ness served as a civil commissioner. Two guests rode with the column: George Wilkins Kendall of the New Orleans Picayune and the Englishman Thomas Falconer. The Handbook counts 321 men in all and says the expedition passed into Mexican hands without a shot, after which its prisoners were marched to Mexico City.

What the plaque says

Texan Santa Fe Expedition A dramatic chapter in administration (1838-1841) of Republic of Texas president Mirabeau B. Lamar. Aware of United States-Mexico commerce crossing Texas by the Santa Fe Trail near the Canadian River, President Lamar sought similar trade advantages for Texas. He initiated the Texan Santa Fe Expedition early in 1841, with Dr. Richard F. Brenham, Col. Wm. G. Cooke and Jose Antonio Navarro as commissioners. Cooke began recruiting in April, forming an artillery and five infantry companies. Remainder of 321 members included merchants (with $200,000 worth of goods), teamsters, guides and others. George W. Kendall, of the New Orleans "Picayune", joined to write classic book on the venture. Travel was by 21 slow ox-wagons. First day's march, June 19, 1841, ended on the San Gabriel, and expedition's campsite is near here. Before reaching the Santa Fe Trail some 600 miles north, the men were to have torturing experiences with drouth and unknown terrain. Ill from hardships, the group was betrayed into the hands of Mexican authorities and sent as prisoners to Mexico City. However, this penetration of upper Texas gave the Republic stronger claims to her northern lands. (1970)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Williamson County Courthouse — 5.1 mi
  The fifth Williamson County courthouse, a Beaux Arts building by C. H. Page, rises over a Georgetown square of more than 50 Victorian-era buildings.
• Inner Space Cavern — 6.2 mi
  A Georgetown cave found in 1963 when highway engineers drilled test holes, holding Pleistocene fossils and 72-degree rooms that visitors reach by an artificial tunnel.
• The Round Rock — 11 mi
  A table-shaped stone in Brushy Creek gave Round Rock its name in 1854; the Chisholm Trail crossed the creek near it, and Old Town stayed behind when the railroad pulled the town east.
• Mount Bonnell — 25 mi
  Austin's old lookout over the Colorado, named by an 1838 traveler, picnicked on by George and Libbie Custer, and reached by a 1939 flight of about 100 limestone steps.

More markers nearby

• The Double File Trail — steps away
• Mankins Crossing — 0.6 mi
• City of Weir — 2.1 mi
• Community of Jonah — 2.9 mi