>From: "Brian W. Kenny" <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Rediscovery of Santa Cruz de San Saba
>Cc: [log in to unmask]
>
>[ AzTeC / SWA SASIG ] :
>
>http://www.history.swt.edu/Catholic_Southwest.htm
>http://www.history.swt.edu/CSW/volume8/volume8.htm
>http://www.history.swt.edu/CSW/volume8/Books8.htm#The Rediscovery of Santa
>Cruz de San Saba
>
>V. Kay Hindes, Mark R. Wolf, Grant D. Hall, and Kathleen Kirk Gilmore, with
>Spanish document translation by Philip A. Dennis. The Rediscovery of Santa
>Cruz de San Saba, A Mission for the Apache in Spanish Texas [San Saba
>Regional Survey Report I]. Austin: Texas Historical Foundation and Texas
>Tech University, 1995. Pp. viii, 94. $15. paper.
>
>This publication will be of interest to all lovers of Texas history and the
>history of our Spanish Colonial period. The mission site "disappeared" a
>little over one hundred years ago and had been the subject of several
>attempts to locate it during the past thirty years. The brief history of
>the Mission Santa Cruz de San Saba is covered in detail. The mission was
>founded in April 1757 as a joint effort of the Colleges of San Fernando de
>Mexico and Santa Cruz de Queretaro. Located in a newly explored area
>northwest of San Antonio in the San Saba River Valley, the mission was one
>of the last of more than thirty-five missions established by the Spanish in
>Texas for the purpose of Christianizing the Indians. The specific purposes
>of this mission were the conversion of the Apache Indians, suppression of
>raids by the Comanche and other Northern Indian tribes, and as an outpost
>against possible French encroachments. Efforts to attract the Apaches or
>other Indians failed and the priests from the College of Santa Cruz de
>Queretaro abandoned the mission in late 1757 leaving three priests from the
>College of San Fernando de Mexico behind. On 16 March 1758 the mission
>complex was attacked and burned by an estimated 2,000 Comanche Indians,
>killed eight of the approximately thirty priests, soldiers, auxiliaries,
>and family members that were in the compound at the time. The survivors
>escaped to the nearby Presidio San Luis de las Amarillas. The mission was
>never rebuilt and efforts to convert the Indians in the area were
>abandoned. The mission buildings were of a wattle and daub construction
>which is a closely spaced wood framework covered in an adobe-like mud. The
>buildings were burned to the ground by Indians and this combined with time
>and the elements obliterated surface traces of the mission site. After the
>Presidio was abandoned, it was approximately one hundred years before the
>area was resettled. These factors all
>combined to cause the mission site to become lost. The publication's tables
>and appendixes include names, occupations, and dispositions of the
>occupants of the mission at the time of the Indian attack as well as
>itemization of equipment and supplies original to the mission, including
>their cost. One appendix gives translations of Spanish documents relating
>to the mission's history and some events subsequent to the Indian attack.
>Of particular archeological interest are the descriptions
>of the multi-disciplinary methodology used to locate the mission site. The
>use and results of resources ranging from information obtained through
>Spanish archival records and previous research to aerial surveys and ground
>penetrating radar are described and explained. Like pieces of a large
>puzzle, these clues all come together and the actual site was located with
>minimal field work. The well-written and easily read text is generously
>supported with numerous photographs, tables, charts, maps, and site plots.
>The photographs include both those of the site and archeological works as
>well as the numerous artifacts recovered. Detailed descriptions of many of
>the most significant artifacts are
>given in support of the photographs. Other appendixes include a Spanish
>vocabulary and the lot number/provenance usually found in archeological
>reports. An eight and one half by eleven format was used by the publisher
>which allows better definition of some of the figures and photographs. The
>authors suggest the same multidisciplinary approach they used can be
>adapted to find other locations. As they conclude, "The mission's location
>was never truly 'lost.' It only remained to be rediscovered." Hal Cherry
>Texas Old Missions and Forts Restoration Association.
>
>-----
>Southwestern Archaeology (SWA)
>Archaeology, Anthropology and History of the American Southwest
>http://www.swanet.org/
>telnet://aztec2.asu.edu
>
>Brian W. Kenny; P.O. Box 61203 Phoenix AZ 85082-1203; [log in to unmask];
>(602) 227-3154 voice msg pager
>
>
>
Anita Cohen-Williams
Listowner of HISTARCH, SUB-ARCH, SPANBORD
Co-listowner/Manager of ANTHRO-L
Contributing Editor, Anthropology
http://www.suite101.com