I
106TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 2409
To amend the National Trails System Act to designate El Camino Real
de los Tejas as a National Historic Trail.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JUNE 30, 1999
Mr. RODRIGUEZ introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Resources
A BILL
To amend the National Trails System Act to designate El
Camino Real de los Tejas as a National Historic Trail.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘El Camino Real de
los Tejas National Historic Trail Act of 1999’’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds that—
(1) El Camino Real de los Tejas (the Royal
Road to the Tejas), served as the primary route be-
tween the Spanish viceregal capital of Mexico City
and the Spanish provincial capital of Tejas at Los
Adaes (1721–1773) and San Antonio (1773–1821);
(2) the seventeenth, eighteenth, and early nine-
teenth century rivalries among the European colo-
nial 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 in
this immense area;
(3) the future of several American Indian na-
tions, whose prehistoric trails were later used by the
Spaniards for exploration and colonization, was tied
to these larger forces and events and the nations
were fully involved in and affected by the complex
cultural interactions that ensued;
(4) the Old San Antonio Road was a series of
routes established in the early 19th century sharing
the same corridor and some routes of El Camino
Real, and carried American immigrants from the
east, contributing to the formation of the Republic
of Texas, and its annexation to the United States;
(5) the exploration, conquest, colonization, set-
tlement, migration, military occupation, religious
conversion, and cultural exchange that occurred in a
large area of the borderland was facilitated by El
Camino Real de los Tejas as it carried Spanish and
Mexican influences northeastward, and by its suc-
cessor, the Old San Antonio Road, which carried
American influence westward, during a historic pe-
riod which extended from 1689 to 1850; and
(6) the portions of El Camino Real de los Tejas
in what is now the United States extended from the
Rio Grande near Eagle Pass and Laredo, Texas and
involved routes that changed through time, that
total almost 2,600 miles in combined length, gen-
erally coursing northeasterly through San Antonio,
Bastrop, Nacogdoches, and San Augustine in Texas
to Natchitoches, Louisiana, a general corridor dis-
tance of 550 miles.
SEC. 3. AUTHORIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION.
Section 5(a) of the National Trails System Act (16
U.S.C. 1244(a) is amended—
(1) by designating the paragraphs relating to
the California National Historic Trail, the Pony Ex-
press National Historic Trail, and the Selma to
Montgomery National Historic Trail as paragraphs
(18), (19), and (20), respectively; and
(2) by adding at the end the following:
‘‘(22) EL CAMINO REAL DE LOS TEJAS.—
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—El Camino Real de los
Tejas (The Royal Road to the Tejas) National
Historic Trail, a combination of routes totaling
2,580 miles in length from the Rio Grande near
Eagle Pass and Laredo, Texas to Natchitoches,
Louisiana, and including the Old San Antonio
Road, as generally depicted on the maps enti-
tled ‘El Camino Real de los Tejas’, contained in
the report prepared pursuant to subsection (b)
entitled ‘National Historic Trail Feasibility
Study and Environmental Assessment: El Ca-
mino Real de los Tejas, Texas-Louisiana’, dated
July 1998. A map generally depicting the trail
shall be on file and available for public inspec-
tion in the Office of the National Park Service,
Department of the Interior. The trail shall be
administered by the Secretary of the Interior.
Designation of El Camino Real de los Tejas
does not itself confer any additional authority
to apply other existing Federal laws and regula-
tions on non-Federal lands along the trail.
Laws or regulations requiring public entities
and agencies to take into consideration a na-
tional historic trail shall continue to apply not-
withstanding the foregoing. On non-Federal
lands, the national historic trail shall be estab-
lished only when landowners voluntarily request
certification of their sites and segments of the
trail consistent with section 3(a)(3) of this Act.
Notwithstanding section 7(g), the United States
is authorized to acquire privately-owned real
property or an interest in such property for
purposes of the trail only with the willing con-
sent of the owner of such property and shall
have no authority to condemn or otherwise ap-
propriate privately-owned real property or an
interest in such property for the purposes of
such trail.
‘‘(B) COORDINATION OF ACTIVITIES.—The
Secretary of the Interior may coordinate with
United States and Mexican public and non-gov-
ernmental organizations, academic institutions,
and, in consultation with the Secretary of State,
the Government of Mexico and its political sub-
divisions, for the purpose of exchanging trail in-
formation and research, fostering trail preserva-
tion and educational programs, providing tech-
nical assistance, and working to establish an
international historic trail with complementary