Early Trails and Roads of the Texas Hill Country

Early trails and roads were essential to the settlement and also to the security of the Texas Hill Country. Many of these roads utilized existing Indian trails.

Trail or Road	Description
Pinta Trail	The Pinta Trail, which extended approximately 180 miles northwest from San Antonio to the site of Santa Cruz de San Sabá Mission near Menard, has served as a transportation route through the Hill Country from the time of the Plains Indians to the present. Indians, Spanish explorers, Mexicans, German immigrants, Forty-niners, and United States soldiers used this trail.
Pinta Trail between the Guadalupe River and Fredericksburg	The portion of the Pinta Trail between the Guadalupe River and Fredericksburg was particularly important between 1840 and 1870 because it was part of the route taken by the German Emigrants as they traveled from New Braunfels to Fredericksburg, and on to the Fisher-Miller grant.
San Saba Trail	The San Saba trail was the shortest route to the San Saba Mission at Menard.
The Wagon Road between Sisterdale and Comfort	Railroad diagrams between 1870 and 1910 indicate that a wagon road existed between Comfort and Sisterdale, which roughly paralleled the course of the Guadalupe River, but one or two miles north of the river. Hermann Seele chronicled two trips along this wagon road between Sisterdale and Comfort in the late 1850’s and early 1860’s.
Trails and Early Roads	The Pinta Trail, which extended approximately 180 miles northwest from San Antonio to the site of Santa Cruz de San Sabá Mission near Menard, has served as a transportation route through the Hill Country from the time of the Plains Indians to the present. Indians, Spanish explorers, Mexicans, German immigrants, Forty-niners, and United States soldiers used this trail.

Compiled from various sources by

Joe Cooper

Kendall County, Texas

August 23, 2009

More to come . . . Check Back Soon

We are continuing to accumulate and refine information for this page.

· If you find errors in the content of this page, please send us an e-mail by clicking the Send E-Mail link at the bottom of the page.

· If you have information that you can add to the content of this page, please send a submission by clicking the Submit Material To The Web Site link at the bottom if the page.