Mission Tejas State Park

Mission Tejas State Park sits on State Highway 21 at the northern edge of the Davy Crockett National Forest, about 21 miles northeast of Crockett. The Handbook of Texas says the Nabedache, the westernmost people of the Hasinai Confederacy, were thickly settled in a Neches River valley when Spanish friars founded San Francisco de los Tejas there in May 1690. The same entry puts the mission on San Pedro Creek, a few miles west of the replica. What stands in the park is a representation, not the mission itself.

Civilian Conservation Corps Company 888 built the replica in the 1930s, along with Park Road 44, a pavilion, a dam and pond, and trails. The Handbook says the friars buried their cannon and bells and burned the mission in October 1693, after illness and death spread among the Indians at the mission. The Rice Family Log Home was moved to the park in 1973 and, the Handbook says, dates to as far back as 1828; it served as an inn on the El Camino Real, which is now State Highway 21. Texas Parks and Wildlife describes the Nabedache Loop as passing remnants of the road itself.

The park's address is 19343 State Highway 21 East, Grapeland, and it is open daily. Day entry is $4 for adults, and children 12 and under are free. Camping and day use often reach capacity, so reserve ahead. Rangers lead programs most Saturdays, and tours of the historic buildings must be booked in advance.