OLD SPANISH FORD

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 4, 6 January 1938, Page 10

OLD SPANISH FORD

EAST TEXAS RIVER.

395 YEARS WITHOUT BRIDGE.

AIT ISOLATED COUNTRY. ~

; (By TOM SIMMONS.) SAX AUGUSTEsE (Texas), Dec. 4,

>• Deep in the piney woods of East Texas near the Louisiana border there are people who never have seen a train, a motion picture show, an electric light.

Some of them wouldn't know what "flat-land furriner" you were talking about if you were to mention the names of Sa-m, Houston, of Babe Ruth, of Chiang Kai-shek. They and their fathers and grandfathers before them have lived in peaceful isolation, in lonesome log cabins in the thick river bottoms and occasionally in communities of which the outside world never has heard.

Why, in one of these hidden villages there was a double killing in 1932— right in plain sight, of course —that the sheriff didn't hear about until 1936.

Small wonder, therefore, that East Texas has waited a mere four centuries to build a bridge. But it is not at an ordinary river crossing; it is one of distinction, of history—to put it briefly, a "first."

In 1542, say historians, the lawless, leaderless men of Hernando De Soto, discoverer of the Mississippi, were roving through the south-west after that intrepid Spaniard had died and had been buried in the great stream with which his name always will be linked. Many turned their thoughts and their faces toward Mexico City. As Old Indian Trail. Even at that day there was a welldefined trail across Louisiana and Texas. The Indians had been Using it for generations in their migrations between the Mississippi and the Rio Grande. It was this route the Spaniards followed, and in so doing they crossed the Sabine River —boundary between Louisiana and Texas—near the present town of Sail Augustine.

Thus, in the near-impenetrable pine thickets, was born what is perhaps the oldest continuous river crossing in the L nited States used by white men; certainly it is the most famous in this section, where civilisation got one of its first footholds in the iXew World.

The years went by and the Spaniards —de Soto's men and others desirous of wresting wealth from the uncharted plains and forests—went back and forth. Soon the old Indian trail from San Antonio to the Sabine became known as El Camino Real, the King's Highway— the Boston Post Road of its day. The ford of the Sabine was in continual use, but still there was no bridge. In other sections there were many, but this spot always was overlooked when theengineers went to work.

In 1715, St. Denis, the French cavalier, made EI Camino Real seem as thronged as Michigan Boulevard by his repeated dashings between Natchitoches, La., the last French outpost to the west, and San Antonio. Sometimes he was torn by love, sometimes by duty, sometimes by patriotism. He got to know every drop of water, every sandbar, every mud turtle in that Sabine River ford.

Nor was he alone. Monks, missionaries, colonists, traders and adventurers trekked across it. Then, in 1794, the Spanish Government took cognisance of things.

First Ferry Authorised. It made a contract with one, Vincent Michelli, to maintain a ferry at the crossing, at that time in use just 252 years! Michelli was to widen the trail into a high road from Nacogdoches, Texas, to the river and was to transport the King's troops across the stream without charge. In return, he was to be given two leagues of land.

One of Michelli's successors as ferrvman "was James Gaines, a rough, violentfellow but nevertheless an imposing figure in early Texas history, who took over in 1809. Through contacts made with the Mexicans as he hauled them back and forth across the sluggish Sabine, he gained their admiration and before long he became a powerful political figure. He was a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence and one of the leading patriots in Texas' war for freedom. \ears before there was general thought of rebellion, he had beeij so outspoken against Spanish tyranny he was banished from the country. They couldn't keep him out. of course.

But as Texas became a Republic its people migrated west and Gaines' ferrv deteriorated into a slow, creaking bunch of pine boards that was hauled across the river by sweating .".egro bucks in a one-sided tug o' war.

Even the advent of the automobile did little to change the situation. El Camino Real became State Highway 21. but for years motorists here and at scores of other spots throughout Texas dro\e squeamishly on to narrow ferries and breathed satisfaction as they reached the other side uiulucked. Even in the midst of New Deal civilisation of 1936 was the ferrv used.

Then lexa.s and Louisiana, as had Spain long ago, awoke to the situation. .The ferry was junked and a temporarv bridge was built. Now a great steel and concrete span Ins forever superseded the method of The pioneers. It was dedicated recently by the governors of the two States, and in the throne was a host of East Texans who no doubt felt, a tug at the heartstrings as thev realised a familiar landmark was <rone. It was like attending a funeral. And now East Texas, having cau°ht up with the world in oue respect marches on!—N.A.N.A.