Early San Antonio: Discovering the Roots of the Alamo City

A companion book to San Antonio: Our Story of 150 Years in the Alamo City, Early San Antonio looks at the city’s history in the years preceding 1865. More than 200 features from the pages of the San Antonio Express-News profile aspects of history and culture from prehistoric times to the Civil War. Sections, arranged by theme, are abundantly illustrated to give a unique view of the area we now call San Antonio. Starting with the city’s prehistoric past, fossils from twenty-one different types of dinosaurs date back to the Mesozoic Era create a bountiful picture of earth life in Central Texas. San Antonio’s strong regional connection with the people and rock art of the Lower Pecos Canyonlands is detailed, as is the story of the Payaya Indians who lived along the San Antonio River and were the first indigenous people to be converted at Mission San Antonio de Valero–which later became the Alamo. Early Spanish explorers like lvar N ez Cabeza de Vaca and religious figures like Fray Antonio de Olivares set the stage for San Antonio’s missions in the 1700s, which helped San Antonio become the largest Spanish settlement in Texas. Through the pre-Civil War tumult of the 1833 Battle of the Alamo to the annexation of Texas by the United States in 1845, the writers of the San Antonio Express-News capture the city’s vibrant and diverse past. Early San Antonio tells the story of San Antonio before it was San Antonio.