Surprisingly, the UNESCO World Heritage Site in San Antonio called the Alamo or, more properly, Mission San Antonio de Valero, is not the first structure to be called the Alamo.
The chapel of the Alamo Mission is known as the “Shrine of Texas Liberty” and has been prominently featured on television and in movies. The best-known movie, The Alamo, was released in 1960 and starred John Wayne as Davy Crockett. That movie is perhaps best remembered, and may be why just about any American child would recognize the Alamo today.
City archaeologists have been working for three years investigating a probable site for the mission just north of downtown San Antonio, and they believe the site may be a predecessor to the present-day Alamo. Kay Hindes, the San Antonio city archaeologist behind the project, says very few people are even aware of the real history behind the mission, a key site in the formation of the city of San Antonio, according to the Texas Standard.
The site, founded in 1718, was discovered by the Office of Historic Preservation in February of 2013 and is believed to be the very first location of the Mission San Antonio de Valero. The site is located near the Christopher Columbus Italian Society at 201 Piazza Italia, near Interstates 10 and 35.
To further confound history buffs, Hindes says, “Actually, there were three locations of Mission San Antonio de Valero. The first site was founded in 1718, so it is actually one of three of the founding sites for the modern day City of San Antonio.”
Hindes had to do quite a bit of research, going through archival records, only to discover there were indeed, three locations, although no one knew exactly where two of the sites might be located. But the Christopher Columbus Italian Society site came up during her search, along with evidence indicating the mission once stood on the site.
“First, I saw metal and nails and those were identified, you could tell that those are what we call wrought nails, which is what we find at Spanish colonial sites,” Hindes says. “I laughed and said it was so exciting I just literally had to sit down on the ground.” Hindes added, “The fact that we’ve found anything is truly miraculous.”
Fox News reports the team has also found a number of other artifacts, including pottery shards, trade beads, chipped stone, gun flints, colonial glass and a grinding stone that add to the evidence the mission was really there. Hindes says the discovery of shreds of Puebla polychrome or San Luis polychrome would give them definitive proof of this being the mission site, because those types of ceramics aren’t found on sites that postdate 1725.
According to archival records, the newly discovered site was likely the first mission location and was used primarily for religious purposes for a short time in 1718. Hindes believes that mission was moved to La Villita from 1719 until 1724. However, records indicate that a hurricane struck in 1724, destroying the mission and forcing one final move to what is now known as Alamo Plaza in San Antonio.
Sadly, after three centuries, time has not been good to the site of the first mission. Construction and digging have substantially damaged what might be buried beneath the rubble of modern civilization. But does it really matter to Americans and in particular, Texans, if the iconic monument everyone sees today is the first or third Alamo?
There were a lot of comments on this story on news media sites. FRIZZFR8 had this to say: “The only thing that Texans care about is where the bravery and strength of the Men stood their ground for TEXAS and that is the site in which we all visit today. Not saying its not neat to see the artifacts but nobody will care about this the way they do the current Alamo ……THE ONLY Alamo to us.”
Another comment from avoiceinthewoods questioned the story. He said: “Huge problem with this story, the Alamo was the mission that stood during the war. This earlier building may have been the original installation, but not the ALAMO of US history.”
ray44444 had this to say: “what? I went to the alamo when I was 7 yrs old, I am 73 now, and most that was there, except the front gate, was added by people for tourist trade. Now it is three times as big.”
As a footnote, the word Texians” refers to the non-Hispanic white residents of Mexican Texas and, later, the Republic of Texas. “Texian” continued to be used to refer to residents of this region after its annexation by the United States of America in 1845. It wasn’t too long before residents in the state of Texas became known as Texans.
