By Tex Rhodes.
San Antonio Express newspaper, January 24, 1937, Sunday.
At least five different civilizations, each in its own layer of soil, were revealed to the writer on the fifth Sunday drive he has taken for the San Antonio Express in co-operation with the members of the San Antonio Automotive Trade Association.
This week the trip was made in a Chrysler Imperial Eight sedan loaned by Southern Motors, Inc., 1100 Broadway. This was the first car equipped with an over-drive that your correspondent has driven during these trips, and the effect was delightful.
We went to Goliad State Park, not taking the shortest route, instead going through Beeville and returning by way of Yorktown, almost into Cuero, through Nixon and Stockdale and back again. For the person desiring to go to the park the shortest route the road leads to Kenedy to Yorktown to Goliad and returns the same way.
From San Antonio to Floresville we traverse a winding road through hills and over streams which has a beauty all its own. This is not a road on which to make fast time, though the new highway being built and which we cross at frequent intervals will take many of the thrills out of the trip. We pass Brooks Field, famed airport, in the section of the road.
We did not engage the overdrive mechanism until we arrived at Floresville, where we stopped for a cup of coffee. From here on South the road is straighter and allows for higher speeds with safety.
One of the features of the trip between San Antonio and Karnes City is the crossing of the San Antonio River. We found ourselves crossing the river that makes San Antonio unique several times during the trip, the last one being at the edge of Goliad State Park.
Kenedy, a beautiful city nestled in a valley, is first glimpsed from the top of a high hill in which the houses and trees make it appear like a village in the beautiful Rhineland.
Sixteen miles south of Kenedy we reached Pettus and beyond that Tuleta, both thriving little oil towns. At Normanna there is a dangerous double right-angle turn across the railway tracks that should be approached with caution.
About four miles south of Normanna we reached a section of the road under construction. All but the last 100 yards of the four mile section is passable in any weather, and the last part more than likely will be completed by the time you read this.
A mile beyond the section under construction we enter Beeville, where we will leave U. S. 181 for U. S. 96, turning left at the Kohler Hotel. There are two problems in Beeville. The first is making the right and left turn necessary at the park just as you enter the town and the second is following the road signs on Highway 96, which point a route to many turns. Incidentally, every street intersection, almost, is marked by an open drainway which will give you a nasty bounce if you strike it going over five miles an hour. This may be the town's way of enforcing slow speed. Thirteen miles beyond Beeville we cross the Blanco Creek and are now riding upon concrete. This stretch of concrete last until you reach Goliad, and is the only concrete on the route, the remainder of the road being macadam.
At Goliad we go through the town until the junction with Texas Highway 29. While we are destined to follow this north later, to visit Goliad State Park we turn south, where in a few hundred yards we find ourselves on a short detour occasioned by an underpass being built under the railroad tracks. A heavily rutted dirt road leads us to Civilian Conservation Corps Camp No. SP-43-T, which is occupied by Veteran Company No. 3822. The enrollees are under the command of Captain J. L. Reed, Field Artillery Reserve, who was absent the day we arrived. Ensign Melvin T. Wells, second in command, was kind enough to take us about and was our host at lunch in the officers' mess of the camp.
Right here and now we want to give due recognition to the art of the CCC camps cooks. In Goliad State Park we ate some of the finest buns we have ever eaten. After proper inquiry we found they were the work of Robert E. Keating, pastry cook and baker. We extended our personal congratulations and were told that the next day pumpkin pie would be in order. We left much disappointed that we could not stay longer, at least a day longer.
After inspecting the camp site carefully we were turned over to S.C.P. Vosper, former professor of architecture at the University of Texas and Texas A. & M. College, who has made his lifetime hobby of research into ancient mission lore his lifetime vocation. He is superintendent of the park, the senior superintendent in the park service in Texas.
Vosper took us to the site of Mission Espiritu Santo where the CCC boys are in charge of excavations, rebuilding of walls and structures and general restoration of the property.
He showed us where various excavations had revealed the tenancy of the property by the original Indians, the occupation by the mission builders, the American filibusters period, the Texas revolution period, the Civil War era and even World War relics were found.
In some places the excavations went down over six feet to reveal the artifacts which are rapidly being collected and classified by nature of use, time of origin and anthropological value. More than 100 skeletons of men, women and children have been revealed some dating back to hundreds of years before the arrival of the Spaniards.
Shops and a custodian's cottage are also being built in the manner of the original mission, using the same materials as were used by the original settlers in the region. Incidentally a study of the old mission on the site revealed a grim error on some one's part. The only building that has been restored now bears on its top a cross, indicating that it was the chapel of the mission. However, later research has revealed that this was the granary of the mission and that the mission chapel has totally disappeared. It will be rebuilt later from data obtained from old records of the Catholic Church.
Leaving the park after an all too-short stay we traversed the rutted road northward until we reached the paved section of Texas Highway No. 29 which we followed north to a junction with State Highway 119. Highway 29 is under construction so we swing left, later reaching Yorktown where we swing to the right until a few miles before we reach Cuero where we turn left again and follow through Nixon, Lavernia and Stockdale into San Antonio.
For a person interested in Texas history this makes an ideal trip. Not only do we view the site of Fannin's massacre and the heroic sacrifice of this intrepid commander and his men but also we are enabled to observe almost a cross section of the entire history of the state of Texas from the days of the earliest aborigines to the present time.
The Chrysler Imperial eight sedan furnished by the Southern Motors, In., functioned perfectly throughout the trip, the overdrive giving high speeds with safety through all conditions and with the utmost comfort and lack of effort.
