Pilares was a village located in northwest Presidio County, Texas, on the southern boundary of the Sierra Vieja near the Rio Grande.[1] The river village was 1.25 miles (2.01 km) south of the confluence of Quinn Creek and the Rio Grande while bearing 1.5 miles (2.4 km) north of Porvenir, Texas. The uninhabited site is in the Trans-Pecos region of West Texas with a southern panorama of the Chihuahuan Desert and northern Mexico.[2]

Pilares, Texas
Ghost town
Pilares, Texas Location within Texas Show map of Texas Pilares, Texas Pilares, Texas (the United States) Show map of the United States
Coordinates: 30°26′11″N 104°51′07″W
Country	United States
State	Texas
County	Presidio
Elevation	3,022 ft (921 m)
Time zone	UTC-6 (Central (CST))
• Summer (DST)	UTC-5 (CDT)
ZIP codes	79854
Area code	432
GNIS feature ID	1376919

Presidio of Pilares

Presidio de Pilares, also known as El Principe, was established along the southern boundaries of the Rio Grande basin in the northern Chihuahua territory of New Spain in 1774.[3][4] The Spanish Presidio provided a defensive wall against the native plains inhabitants during the Mexican Indian Wars in Spanish Texas.

History of Rio Grande presidios

In the mid-18th century, Charles III of Spain appointed Marquis of Rubí and José de Gálvez to fulfill expeditions and observations of the America frontier presidios in the northern regions of New Spain.[5][6]

On September 10, 1772, the Spanish Empire issued new regulations for presidios constructed in New Spain near the Rio Grande in the Northern Mexico territories.[7][8] In 1776, the Viceroyalty of New Spain established Spanish provinces in the Spanish America frontier through the governance of the Provincias Internas serving as a supplemental article to the Bourbon Reforms. The Spanish Presidio coerced the territorial development of New Spain in the Chihuahua territory of the Spanish America colonies while fortifying the Spanish missions in Texas.[9]

See also

• Adams–Onís Treaty
• Comanche Trail
• French colonization of Texas
• Nueva Vizcaya, New Spain
• United States Camel Corps

References

Audiobook Bibliography

• History of the Conquest of Mexico public domain audiobook at LibriVox

Bibliography

• Solís, Antonio de (1724). The History of the Conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards. Internet Archive. London, England: T. Woodward and J. Hooke. OCLC 1046514488.
• Solís, Antonio de (1738). The History of the Conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards. Internet Archive. Vol. I. London, England: John Osborn. OCLC 733087530.
• Solís, Antonio de (1738). The History of the Conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards. Internet Archive. Vol. II. London, England: John Osborn. OCLC 733087530.
• Bonnycastle, Richard Henry (1818). Spanish America; A Descriptive, Historical, and Geographical Account of the Dominions of Spain in the Western Hemisphere, Continental & Insular [Account of Spanish America]. Internet Archive. Vol. I. London, England: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown. OCLC 298513594.
• Bonnycastle, Richard Henry (1818). Spanish America; A Descriptive, Historical, and Geographical Account of the Dominions of Spain in the Western Hemisphere, Continental & Insular [Account of Spanish America]. Internet Archive. Vol. II. London, England: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown. OCLC 981299968.
• Bonnycastle, Richard Henry (1819). Spanish America; A Descriptive, Historical, and Geographical Account of the Dominions of Spain in the Western Hemisphere, Continental & Insular [Account of Spanish America]. Internet Archive. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Abraham Small Publisher. OCLC 1157455578.
• Bolton, Herbert Eugene (1915). Texas in the Middle Eighteenth Century: Studies in Spanish Colonial History and Administration. Internet Archive. Berkeley, California: University of California Press. OCLC 558670456.

External links

• United States Geological Survey. Quinn Creek, TX quadrangle, Pilares, Texas (Topographic map). Reston, VA: United States Geological Survey – via TopoQuest.

• "Regulations, San Ildefonso, September 10, 1772" [The Threads of Memory: Spain and the United States]. New Mexico History Museum. New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs.
• "Spanish Missions, Presidios, and Roads in the 17th and 18th Centuries". Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection. University of Texas at Austin. 1976.
• "The Gateway Missions" [Attempts at Native Conversions along the Rio Grandé]. Texas Beyond History. University of Texas at Austin.
• "The Threads of Memory: Spain and the United States". Threads of Memory Exhibition ~ New Mexico History Museum. New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs.

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