San Marcos de Neve

by Scott Nelson

This is an interpretive piece written for the San Marcos Main Street Project.

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The site of San Marcos de Neve was one of the last attempts by the Spanish to colonize Texas. Its original site is believed to be on the left bank of the San Marcos River at the crossing of El Camino Real, on the Old Bastrop Highway, just east of San Marcos. Founded in 1808 by the Spanish Governor of Texas Manuel Antonio Cordero y Bustamante, the original population was perhaps as large as 80 people. There were many families and several land grants were issued to attract settlers from central and northern Mexico. Unfortunately, this small group of settlers soon realized just how hard frontier life could be. Supplies were difficult to come by, and living conditions were almost unbearable, with homes consisting of little more than mud huts, or jacales. Then, in June of 1808, just five months after their arrival, the San Marcos River escaped its banks and nearly washed away the entire community. These determined settlers, however, did not give up easily. They found the native Indians in the region, the Tonkawa, to be very friendly, and spent the next several years rebuilding their river town. Sadly, in 1812 raids by Comanche Indians of West Texas and continued flooding forced the first citizens of the San Marcos River Valley to abandon their ill-fated colony.
In the years that followed much of the land around the river was included in land grants issued by both Mexico and the Republic of Texas. However, it was not until the annexation of Texas by the United States that a new town was established on the San Marcos River.