San Saba Mission and Presidio

The Facts: A Pivotal Mission in Texas History

Mission Santa Cruz de San Saba was founded among the Lipan Apache Indians by Franciscan Missionaries in 1757.  Presidio San Luis de las Amarillas (popularly known as San Sabá Presidio) was established in April 1757 as a support for the Santa Cruz de San Sabá Mission. The presidio and its accompanying mission were the first place that the Spanish in Texas came into conflict with the Comanche Indians and found that Plains Indians, mounted on Spanish horses and armed with French guns, constituted a fighting force superior to that of the Spanish colonials.  In January and February of 1758 small raids and theft of the presidial horse herd by northern Indians, enemies of the mission Apaches, gave warnings of an impending attack.  On March 16, 1758 approximately 2,000 Comanche and their allies attacked the mission and burned it to the ground.  Though the mission was gone, the presidio remained as a northern most post against the Comanche.  It was not until 1772 that a royal decree officially abandoned the fort on the San Sabá River.  The retreat of Spain from the San Saba Presidio back to a line of missions along the the Rio Grande (with the exception of San Antonio) signaled the beginning of the end of Spain's attempt to move farther northwest into Texas and hence this mission and presidio are seem by scholars as pivotal in Texas history [Weddle][Jackson and Foster].

The Legends

The mystique of this site did not end with Spanish abandonment however.  The presidio was to become the source of legends of a lost Spanish silver mine among Texans nearly a hundred years later.  The initial 1753 expedition seeking a site for an Apache mission (later to become Santa Cruz de San Saba Mission) led to the discovery of Los Almagres Mine in what is now Llano County.  Lt. Juan Galván - expedition leader - heard from Indians of a cerro de almagre, a hill of red ocher, indicating the presence of mineral-bearing ores. Upon Galván's return to San Antonio, several men from that settlement were guided to the hill by Apache Indians in August 1753. No valuable ore was found, but interest in the hill containing gossan refused to die. Governor Jacinto de Barrios y Jáuregui, fearful that the use of Apache guides by unauthorized prospectors would arouse the Comanches, decided to send an official expedition. To lead it, he chose Bernardo de Miranda y Flores, who left San Antonio with twenty-three soldiers and citizens on February 17, 1756.  After locating the cerro de almagre (now known as the Riley Mountains, a quarter league from Honey Creek), Miranda's men opened a shaft and found "a tremendous stratum of ore."  So abundant were the ore veins, Miranda reported, that he guaranteed "a mine to each of the inhabitants of the province of Texas." Following Miranda's return to San Antonio on March 10, Barrios sent a three-pound ore sample to the viceroy in Mexico City for assay, but the sample was deemed too small for accurate analysis.  Later, after San Saba Presidio was established, its' captain Diego Ortiz Parrilla, seeking permission to move his garrison to Los Almagres to work the mine, obtained ore samples and smelted them at the presidio. He calculated a yield of 1½ ounces of silver from seventy-five pounds of ore. After destruction of the San Sabá Mission Ortiz Parrilla was reassigned and the mine was never officially opened. Parrilla's interest, combined with Miranda's report, gave birth to an enduring legend. The slag heap the Spaniards left on the bank of the San Saba River when the presidio was abandoned a decade later fired the imagination of later treasure seekers, who supposed the mine to be in that area.

Interest in the mines continued to surface from time to time throughout the Spanish colonial period. Fray Diego Jiménez and Capt. Felipe de Rábago y Terán, Ortiz Parrilla's successor at San Sabá, proposed reestablishing the San Sabá Mission on the Llano River, so that the mineral veins might be worked. The Barón de Ripperdá, as governor, sent an expedition to examine the mines in 1778; ore samples were extracted. In 1788-79 a French sojourner, Alexandre Dupont, extracted ore samples from the site and took them to Mexico for assay. He never returned. On the heels of his last visit, six prospectors from San Antonio were attacked at Los Almagres by Apaches. All but one were slain. Indian hostilities thereafter put a damper on such activity.

Stephen F. Austin, on his first trip to Texas, heard from Erasmo Seguín that there was a rich silver mine on the San Saba River and a gold mine on the Llano. Hearing again in Mexico City of the unworked ore deposit called Los Almagres he sent soldiers to inspect it. They probably went to the wrong place. In 1829 the mythical "lost" silver mine of San Sabá began appearing on Austin's maps. A year later, Henry S. Tanner borrowed Austin's designation for his own famous Texas map. Its wide distribution resulted in "a rash of maps showing silver mines near the old Spanish fort." Austin, doubtless realizing the value of the legend in attracting immigrants, repeated it in an 1831 promotional pamphlet. For years afterward it was mentioned in nearly every book about Texas.

James and Rezin Bowie, on their sallies into the Hill Country, reinforced the legend. Los Almagres was transformed into the "lost San Saba mine," then the "lost Bowie mine." After 1895 some prankster (presumably) appended the word mine to the Bowie name on the presidio's stone gatepost at Menard. Today, the legend is the focus of an annual Menard festival called Jim Bowie Days, which, like Austin's pamphlet, has a promotional intent. The fact is that the Los Almagres mine that inspired the legend was at another location more than seventy miles away.

[Dobie] is a must read for anyone interested in the legends surrounding the old presidio.

TerraServer

In the photo below, the green circles shows the location of present day Menard, TX.  The ruins of the presidio are located west of town and north of the San Saba river.  It's located on the city's golf course; see small yellow circle.  The ruins are not in good condition, which is a real shame given the importance of this site in Texas history and folklore [Dobie].  The mission is located east of town and south of the river.  The larger yellow circle indicates the general area of the mission.  No ruins are readily visable from the road of the mission.  The blue line shows the San Saba river and direction of flow east.  Red arrow indicates ford in the river where Comanches crossed to attack the mission [Weddle].

Click on image to go to TerraServer

Presidio Photos

The presidio sits on or near the city golf course.  Some attempts have been made at reconstruction.  Mostly just rubble now however.

Mission Photos

Nothing is visible of the mission from the highway, but roadside marker marks the approximate location. 

Text from the roadside marker :