historical background op tie old sparish trail
The Padres and the Old Trails
Dedicated to those heroic souls, the early Franciscan Fathers, who were the pioneers of the great highway that now connects Florida, Mexico and California. They toiled across deserts and mountains thru imminent and deadly danger, hearing aloft the symbol of their order and inspired fes "by their love, of mankind. While the explorations of the oonouistadores flame on the scrolls of legend and history the works of the padres still stand as monuments and ruins along the Old Spanish Trail /"witnesses of their faith and industry and architectural examples of their high resolve.
Lands of Romance and P.lehes
The Old Spanish Trail weaves together the ancient city of St. Augustine, the alluring country of the Gulf of Mexico, the lands of the Spanish Southwest, the cities and towns of the Mexican Border, the golden coast of Southern California, as the all-year outdoor land for the people; it cane the Southern Borderlands ns the last and greatest frontier to settlement and development. The hack-ground of history is the oldest and most romantic in America. It reaches from St. Augustine, Florida, thru Pensacola, Mobile and Few Orleans with their colorful Spanish and French periods: tbvu the old Spanish mission country of the Southwest——San Antonie .and central Texas, Cl Faso, Te^as and the Rio Grands Valley to Sanua Fe, New Mexico; then Tucson and the bantu Cruz Valley missions in Arizona and Mexico, end then the mother Ms si on of California sfc San Diego where the explorers of today may continue northward to Los Angeles and San Francisco and visit the missions and relics that glorify the California Coast.
The Conquistadorss
Those were the days of Spanish Splendor, of cavalier and conquo> or, of Columbus, Cortez and 'Dizarrc, of "once de Loon, Balboa, de Soto and Coronado, ana of priestly names whose kingdoms were of Gold. The romance and riches of Mexico and Peru rouse 1 prince and peasant. The Spaniards dreamed of gold and glory find with expeditions worth a king’s ransom they struggled thru jungles, deserts and mountains to despair and death while the phantom of riches raised others to follow; the Spanish conquests reached nearly half the continent.
In South America they sought for the land of the Gilded Chief xvhom they called Ml Dorado; they searched for the Temple of the Sun and the enchanted City of the Caesars. In North America they searched thru Arizona and Hew Mexico for the fabled Seven Cities of Gold, and in Texas and Kansas for the realms of the