El Camino Real de los Tejas Heritage Education Project continues with series of lectures

More than 30 heritage resource managers and independent researchers recently attended the first of two El Camino Real de los Tejas Heritage Tourism workshops. The group traveled to Mission Dolores Visitor Center in San Augustine and toured a section of the trace near Geneva, Texas. Front row: Linda Pinkston, Susie Lower, Susan Shore and Tara Tucker; second row: Susan Boyle, Mona Hutchinson, Karen Watson, Kimberly McDonell and Robyn Smith; third row: Barbara Parmley, Kay Monzingo, Raymond Starr, Rolonda Teal and Robin Williams; fourth row: Arika Kulhavy, Gary Pinkerton, Ray Birthelot, Jim Neal, Barret Lyne, Pat Stephens-Williams, Sheila Richmond, John Ferguson and Carolyn Spears; and back row: Caroline Herlinger, April Garner, Joe Muguerza, Jennifer Price, Dan Clute, Barbara Althaus, Ron Ellington, Jeff Williams and Maureen Winn. Not pictured: Anna Kellett, Doris Emshoff, Anne Boykin, Christopher Talbot (photographer) and Letitia Holt.

East Texans wishing to learn more about El Camino Real de los Tejas are invited to attend one of four upcoming public lectures hosted by the Stone Fort Museum at Stephen F. Austin State University.

Jeffery Williams, landscape geographer and GIS systems administrator for SFA's Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture, will outline his ongoing research on the historic trace and the new mapping efforts to identify trail resources. The lectures are planned as follows:

• May 7 - 6:30 p.m., Chireno Methodist Church, 851 Main St., Chireno, Texas.
• June 12 - 5:30 p.m., First United Methodist Church, 701 Goliad Ave., Crockett, Texas. This event is being planned in cooperation with the Houston County Historical Society as it celebrates the anniversary of the 1837 formation of Houston County.
• July 4 - 2:30 p.m., Cole Art Center @ the Old Opera House, 329 E. Main St., downtown Nacogdoches, Texas. Williams will be joined by SFA art professor Christopher Talbot, who will be exhibiting his students' 2008 work, "Now and Then." The project, which blended historic photographs of downtown Nacogdoches with recent images, has led to a trail-wide project documenting communities.
• Aug. 13 - 6:30 p.m., Caddoan Mounds State Historic Site, 1649 State Hwy 21 W, Alto, Texas.

The series of lectures is part of the Camino Real Heritage Education Project funded by the Intermountain Region of the National Park Service. The second of two workshops for heritage resource professionals will be held this summer, as well, followed by a workshop exclusively for teachers.

El Camino Real de los Tejas National Historic Trail was added to the National Trails System in 2004. It crosses Texas into northwest Louisiana and is a portion of the historic trail that linked Mexico City with the Spanish colonial capital at Los Adaes, near Robeline, La. The Stone Fort Museum has been actively involved in education and interpretation of the trail for more than a decade, beginning in 1996 with the award-winning exhibit, Traversing the Wilderness: El Camino Real in Eastern Texas.

To learn more about the public lectures, summer workshops or the museum's current exhibit, "Building a Community and the Meaning of Leadership," visit the Web site at www.sfasu.edu/stonefort or contact museum director Carolyn Spears at (936) 468-2408.

The Stone Fort Museum's regular hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday.