San Antonio Missions

Our goal for today, after picking up the camera, was to visit some of the missions included in the National Park Service unit.  The Visitor Center is located at the San Jose Mission—the most elaborate of the 4 missions in the National Park Service.  We, of course, watched the film and toured the grounds.  We were able to get in the ranger guided tour which was very informative.  We like the ranger led tours.  Some are better than others, but today’s ranger was very knowledgeable.

In the early 1700s a series of missions were established along the San Antonio River.  These missions were an attempt by the Spanish to push their stronghold further and further north as well as to spread the Catholic faith to the Native Americans living in the area.

Espada Mission

Portion of Espada Aquaduct

These Native Americans were hunter/gatherers and had been living on the land for thousands of years.  In the early 1700s, the Apache and Comanche began raiding villages and the missions offered sanctuary to the tribes of South Texas.  Families lived in apartments along the perimeter of the mission and learned the skills needed to help support the community.

San Jose Mission

Priest quarters behind the archway

One of the skilled these hunter/gatherer tribes learned was agriculture.  A dam was built and an extensive aqueduct system was built to supply not only water for the mission, but also to irrigate the crops.  Parts of that aqueduct system still exist today.

Within the archway

We visited three of these missions today—San Jose, Espada, and San Juan.  The Alamo is also one in the series of missions, but it is not operated by the National Park Service.  The fourth mission, Concepcion, we will visit on another day.  It is located closer into downtown and the River Walk.

San Juan Mission

I made over a hundred pictures today.  It was hard for me to decide which to include in this post.  I’ll try to include the rest in the next few days.