Caddo Indians occupied the Nacogdoches area as early as 1200 A.D., settling along Lanana and Banita creeks, names given to these streams later by Spanish settlers. The Caddo lived in huts made of limbs lashed together and covered with grass. They gathered the natural bounty of East Texas’ forests and streams and established elaborate trade relationships with other Indians.

Nacogdoches remained a Caddo Indian settlement until 1716. At that time Domingo Ramón established five religious missions and a military presidio in East Texas, including Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe de los Nacogdoches del Pilar. That was the first European activity in the area, but a mission was not a town — it was a church. The mission struggled until strengthened by the Marqués de Aguayo in 1721, but even then, it endured more than prospered.

Take a tour of more than 70 Texas State Historical Markers, including Ancient Mound, Chas. Hoya Land Office, Zion Hill Baptist Church Cemetery and Site of the Mission Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe — a Spanish outpost founded in 1716 as a means of civilizing and christianizing the Nacogdoches Indians.