, Gonzales County
Shortly after he established his colony along the Guadalupe River in 1825, Green Dewitt ordered that a road be built between his capital city, Gonzales, and San Antonio. Byrd Lockhart surveyed the road and opened it in 1827. Eighty miles long and running past three watering holes, settlers and Mexicans used it for travel and trade, though the presence of native groups in the area made traveling dangerous. Mile markers were carved into oak trunks along the route. During the Texas War for Independence, Stephen F. Austin, William B. Travis, and Jim Bowie used the road, as did the Immortal 32, who marched from Gonzales to the Alamo. Santa Anna also marched his army along it after the battle of the Alamo.