Axe ’Em, Jacks!
The Stone Fort Museum will launch the El Camino Real de los Tejas Heritage Education Project with a weekend workshop for heritage resource practitioners March 7-8 at Stephen F. Austin State University.
Designated as a National Historic Trail in 2004, the "King's Highway" - now Texas Highway 21 - has existed for more than 300 years. Workshop participants will be provided with a broad spectrum of information on the trail and tools for incorporating the information into interpretive programs related to the El Camino Real.
Funded in part by the National Trails - Intermountain Region of the National Park Service, the El Camino Real de los Tejas Heritage Education Project is designed to support trail-wide interpretation for visitors and local residents with two separate workshops and four public lectures through the spring and summer.
"Interpretive planners, visitors' bureau staff and volunteers, and others needing background on the trail will be provided information they need to interpret the Camino Real in one and a half days of intensive learning," said Carolyn Spears, project director and curator of the Stone Fort Museum.
Participants will travel to San Augustine to learn from field work in progress at the Mission Dolores Visitor Center followed and visit an extant portion of the trace known as Lobanilla Cuts.
Speakers will include Susan Calafate Boyle, historian for the National Trails System of the National Park Service; Jim Neal, migratory bird specialist for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service; Jeffrey Williams and Pat Stephens-Williams of the SFA Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture; George Avery, cultural heritage resource coordinator of the Center for Regional Heritage Research; Perky Beisel of the SFA Department of History; Mary Turner, regional coordinator for the Texas Forest Trail program; and Raymond Berthelot, chief interpreter for Louisiana State Parks.
Registration for the March workshop is $50 and includes transportation, four meals and resource materials. Additional information and a complete agenda are available online at the museum's Web site: www.sfasu.edu/stonefort.