A Welcome Rest

During the height of travel along El Camino Real de los Tejas, this site was a frequent rest stop, or paraje, known as Paraje el Cerrito, or Place of the Little Hill. It likely attracted travelers because its high, dry land offered grass for grazing animals, edible plants for foraging, and nearby water sources at Bowles Creek and the Neches River. Distinct from other rest stops along the 2,500 mile-long route, it also featured Caddo burial and temple mounds that were still visible even though they had been abandoned three to four hundred years before European contact. What made the location ideal for travelers also made it the southwesternmost location of the great Mound Builder cultures, and extensive archeological excavations show that a prosperous Caddo community existed here more than 1,200 years ago.

Texas · United States