OLD SPANISH TRAIL DEVELOPMENT
ACROSS THE AMERICAN CONTINENT
ALONG- THE GULP OP MEXICO AND THE MEXICAN BORDERLANDS
By Harral Ayres, President
From the old Spanish city o£ Saint Augustine on the Atlantic Coast to the old Spanish city of San Diego on the Pacific Coast the Old Spanish Trail threads its way thru old Spanish cities across the continent. In the East is the lure of the Gulf of Mexico. In the West, the Mexican Borderlands and the highways down into that interesting country of Spanish and Mexican achievement, and of legends and relics of Aztec races. Spanish Mission and Administrative Works
In the present United States Spanish mission and administrative works were spread from Florida to California. The earliest were in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina; the latest, in California. The mission establishments. as a rule, embraced cathedral-like churches of stone, cement or other enduring material, with vocational buildings, livestock ranches and irrigated farms. They became havens of hospitality and centers of culture in a primitive and strange world. Often the missions were the frontier posts; the padres braving the frontier dangers, and even martyrdom if it came, and often it did come. The five missions at San Antonio, Texas, reached the highest degrees of architectural refinements and majesty. In the Tucson-Nogales country of Arizona and western Mexico another group of noble buildings and communal enterprises spread over those valleys and deserts. They were also spread over New Mexico . . and thru the El Paso Valley . . and iu South and East Texas . . . and in California from San Diego to Sonoma, 600 mi. north.
French and Spanish Works
Old Louisiana was French territory
after 1699, with Biloxi, Mobile and New Orleans the first settlements. French life and traditions are strong thru there and westward in Louisiana, and up the Mississippi, the Red, the Mobile and other rivers. Spain ruled Old Louisiana from 1769 to 1S00 and interesting old Spanish works are in the old French Quarters in New Orleans. Creoles are the descendants of French-Spanish unions; many families tracing their ancestry to the nobility of both empires. West on the highway and on the storied Bayou Teche, 140 mi. from New Orleans, is New Iberia, settled by Spaniards from tile Canary Islands. New Iberia means New Spain; Spaniards were Iberians anciently. Today that is the heart of the Evangeline Country immortalized by Longfellow .... the alluring Teche Country . . . the laud of the French-Acadiaus. North 6 miles is St. Martinville, home of Evangeline.
(To be continued next issue.)
WARNING!
Tulsa Members.
March 1st is arrest date; and April 1st is penalty date. Avoid the rush and buy tags early.
Of course all members of the automobile club can get their tags at the Tulsa Headquarters, 123 E-5th St.
J. F. ROLLINS,
Tulsa Auto J. R. ANDREWS, License Bureau Sec'y. Auto Club 22S E. 4th, of Oklahoma ---------------------------«