Camino Real de los Tejas National Historic Trail Oral History Project
The National Park Service has funded the Oral History Project for fiscal years 2008-09 and 2009-10.The focus is on three counties along the Camino Real de los Tejas corridor-Sabine, San Augustine,
and Nacogdoches counties. The purpose of the project is to provide the research base for future
interpretation of the Sabine to Angelina River corridor of El Camino Real de los Tejas National Historic
Trail. Informants are asked about their knowledge of roads in the area and about how their lives have
been affected by and intertwined with the roads. A great deal of personal history is recorded, as well as
locations of archaeological sites and place names. Twenty-five informants, mostly over the age of 70,
were interviewed during 2008-09, and 25 more were interviewed during 2009-10. Connie Hodges is a
student of the late Jim Corbin and has conducted oral history interviews in the San Augustine County
area as part of her undergraduate studies.
Connie was hired as an independent contractor to set up and conduct the interviews for 2008-09, and
since NPS wanted Connie to be an employee of SFA instead of an independent contractor, Connie was
hired as a Research Assistant of the Heritage Center for the 2009-10 project year. We are pleased to
announce that the National Park Service has funded a final phase of this project which will allow Connie
Hodges to perform more interviews and also help with the writing of a summary book. Compatriots of
the Heritage Center can help with the writing of the book-interpreting and synthesizing the interviews,
relating them to historical events and trends of the times, and making suggestions for how to organize
the book.
Summaries of the project findings may be found at the following links: