El Camino Real de los Tejas

El Camino Real de los Tejas National Historic Trail
Location of trail
Location	Texas, Louisiana; USA
Nearest city	(start) & Laredo, TX
Established	2004
Governing body	National Park Service
Website	El Camino Real de los Tejas National Historic Trail

The El Camino Real de los Tejas National Historic Trail is a National Historic Trail covering the U.S. section of the El Camino Real de Los Tejas from 17th-century Spanish colonial era in Spanish Texas. The National Park Service designated the El Camino Real de los Tejas National Historic Trail as a unit in the National Historic Trail system in 2004.

The modern highways Texas 21 (along with Texas OSR) and Louisiana 6 roughly follow the original route of the trail.

The historic trail ran from the capitol and central Viceroyalty of New Spain — present day Mexico City — winding through Saltillo, Monterrey, Laredo (on the modern Texas border), San Antonio, and Nacogdoches, before reaching the Louisiana border at the Sabine River. The river crossing was a ferry, in use since around 1795, as the Chabanan Ferry. James Taylor Gaines purchased the ferry in 1819, and it became known as the Gaines Ferry. Gaines sold the ferry in 1843 and at some point it began to be called Pendleton's Ferry. The ferry remained in service until being replaced by the Gaines-Pendleton Bridge in 1937.

After crossing the river the trail went through the Neutral Strip and Many, Louisiana, before ending at in modern Louisiana. The trail has a 2,500-mile length. For centuries the Native Americans had used the trail routes for trading between the Great Plains and Chihuahuan Desert regions. The El Camino Real de Los Tejas was first followed and marked by Spanish explorers and missionaries in the 1700s. It was one of several named El Camino Real, or 'royal road,' that connected the Spanish possessions in North America with Mexico City.