Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 107 Part 2.djvu/544

 107 STAT. 1496 PUBLIC LAW 103-145—NOV. 17, 1993 Public Law 103-145 103d Congress An Act Nov 17 1993 '^° amend the National Trails System Act to direct the Secretary of the Interior ' to study the El Camino Real Para Los Texas for potential addition to the National [b. 9»dJ Trails System, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of El Camino Real the United States of America in Congress assembled, Para Los Texas 1993^ ^^^ °^ SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 16 USC 1241 This Act may be cited as the "El Camino Real Para Los Texas ' ^ote Study Act of 1993". SEC. 2. FINDINGS. The Congress finds— (1) El Camino Real Para Los Texas was the Spanish road established to connect a series of missions and posts extending from Monclova, Mexico to the mission and later Presidio Nuestra de Pilar de los Adaes which served as the Spanish capital of the province of Texas from 1722 to 1772; (2) El Camino Real, over time, comprised an approximately 1,000-mile corridor of changing routes from Saltillo through Monclova and Guerrero, Mexico; San Antonio and Nacogdoches, Texas and then easterly to the vicinity of Los Adaes in present day Louisiana; and constituted the only major overland route from the Rio Grande to the Red River Valley during the Spanish Colonial Period; (3) the seventeenth, eighteenth, and early nineteenth century rivalries among the European colonial powers of Spain, France, and England and after their independence, Mexico and the United States, for dominion over lands fronting the Gulf of Mexico were played out along the evolving travel routes across this immense area; and, as well, the future of several American Indian nations were tied to these larger forces and events; (4) El Camino Real and the subsequent San Antonio Road witnessed a competition that helped determine the United States southern and western boundaries; and (5) the San Antonio Road, like El Camino Real, was a series of routes established over the same corridor but was not necessarily the same as El Camino Real; and that from the 1830's, waves of American immigrants, many using the Natchez Trace, travelled west to Texas via the San Antonio Road, as did Native Americans attempting to relocate away from the pressures of European settlement.

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