La Bahia High Way

La Bahia trail – FM 390

In the late 1600s and through the 1700s, 1800s, and into the 1900s there existed in what is now Texas a system of cattle trails and well known thoroughfares connecting Mexico with Texas, Louisianna and the United States.

The most recoginzed of these historic thoroughfares is the "Old San Antonio Road" or "El Camino Real" (Kings Highway).  The Old San Antonio Road (OSR) runs from Natchitoches  in Louisiana to San Augustine, Texas and on to Nacadoches, Alto, Crockett, near to Bryan. One branch of the El Comino Real traversed north of Bryan and on into Austin, San Marcos, New Braunsfels, and San Antonio.

The OSR traversed from Crockett to near Bryan and on to Bastrop, New Braunsfels, San Antonio.  Both roads then continued from Texas through Monclova to Mexico City.

A third branch, known as the "Lower Road" took a more southerly route to San Antonio and thence to Cuero following Notheasterly to near Bryan and from thence to Louisiana.  The Handbook of Texas tell us that "the La Bahía, Opelousas, or Lower Road was originally an east-west Indian trail in southwestern Louisiana and southeastern Texas and eventually extended to Washington-on-the-Brazos and Goliad. The Brazos River is thought to have been crossed at the mouth of the Navasota River in present Grimes County and the Colorado River near the site of present La Grange in Fayette County."

Branching from this "Lower Road" were the Atascosito Road established by the Spanish before 1757 as a military highway to East Texas.  It  took its name from Atascosito, a Spanish settlement and military outpost on the Trinity River near the site of what is now Liberty, Texas. This road extended from Refugio and Goliad to the Atascosito Crossing on the Colorado River, on to the Brazos near San Felipe de Austin, and on to the Trinity.

This eastward extension of the trail was known as the Opelousas Road. The road followed the Old Spanish Trail, or La Bahia Road, from New Orleans through Opelousas, crossing the Sabine River near Beaumont, to San Antonio, essentially following the present Interstate Highway 10.  It appears that the trail was initially used to send cattle to New Orleans via Opelousas or Alexandria. The much older La Bahía Road runs from western Louisiana into southeast Texas and was used before European settlement. The road was extended by the Spanish to Goliad and was used by American pioneers settling in Texas.

This portion of the La Bahia Road extended from Washingon-on-the-Brazos (Old Washington) to Independence, to Gay Hill,  to Burton and continued on through Round Top and into La Grange.  Texas Highway FM 390 generally follows this portion of the La Bahia Road. A portion of this road branches off of its parent route along Old Baylor Road to the west terminating at Old Baylor Park, the original location of Baylor University, chartered in 1845 by the Congress of the Republic of Texas. The University of Mary Hardin Baylor was formerly Baylor University's women's department. Both colleges relocated to their current campuses in Waco and Belton respectively in 1886.