Texas Missions

Mallory JarygaIntegrated Curriculum

March 29, 2006

Brief History

1492 – Columbus came to America Spaniards came to explore American mainland

1500s – Spanish explorers Cabeza de Vaca and Coronado reinforced their claim to Texas

Friars were establishing missions 1682 – La Salle led first the European expedition to navigate the

Mississippi River and Gulf of Mexico Claimed the entire region surrounding the Mississippi for France France had a claim to Texas

Spaniards feared a French Texas Decided it was time to settle Texas Renewed efforts to establish missions and settlements

Mission Corpus Christi de la Ysleta

• Established in 1682 by Spanish friars• Located a few miles east of the present-day

El Paso• Texas’ oldest mission• All that remains is the restored mission

church• Has changed names several times making it

difficult to keep up with

Mission Corpus Christi de la Ysleta

Mission Concepción

• Started as a mission in 1716 in East Texas• moved to San Antonio in 1731

• October 1835 – Battle of Concepción• 1898 – Teddy Roosevelt trained his Rough

riders nearby• One of America’s oldest un-restored stone

churches • Still a parish church today

Mission Concepción

Mission Espada

• Established in 1690• First mission established in East Texas by

the Spanish• Abandoned and reestablished several times• Moved onto the San Antonio River in 1731• Now the center of the Mission Tejas State

Historical Park

Mission Espada

Mission San Juan

• Originally founded in 1716 in Eastern Texas

• Transferred in 1731 to its present location• Helped support San Antonio missions and

local settlements • By the mid 1700s, it was a regional supplier

of agricultural produce

Mission San Juan

Mission San José

• Founded in 1720• Reached its peak in 1794 with 350 Indians • Completely closed as a mission in 1824• The state’s largest restored mission

compound and has the most ornate church façade

• Still a parish church

Mission San José

Mission San José

Mission Espíritu Santo

• Founded originally in 1722 on the Texas coast • Where Texas cattle business had its rudimentary

beginnings• Karankawa Indians proved “cantankerous”

• Moved in 1726 to the Guadalupe River

• Closed in 1830• Situated in the middle of the Goliad State

Historical Park

Mission Espíritu Santo

Presidio La Bahía

• Fort dates back to 1749• La Bahía’s job to protect Mission Espíritu

Santo• Site of many skirmishes during the Mexican

and Texan revolutions• Karankawa Indians not hospitable

• Moved to the Guadalupe River• Goliad

Presidio La Bahía

Resources

Information• Anderson, Adrian N. et al. Texas and Texans. Columbus: Glencoe/McGraw

Hill, 1993. • Foster, Nancy Haston. The Texas Monthly Guidebooks: Texas Missions,

Houston: Gulf Publishing Company, 1995, 150 pgs.• http://www.nps.gov/saan/• http://hotx.com/missions/history.html • http://www.lsjunction.com/facts/missions.htm • http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/SS/its2.html

Pictures• http://www.zianet.com/msaxton/TX/index.html• http://www.landscapecamera.com/mission/missions.html