I Once Was Lost But Now Am Found

This just in from the folks at Stephen F. Austin State University:

After an intensive five-year search, a team of Texas Archeological Stewardship Network (TASN) members and professional archeologists have announced the discovery of the original location of Mission Nuestra Señora de la Purísima Concepción de los Hainais, later, "de los Tejas," in western Nacogdoches County.

The mission is the oldest yet discovered from 18th-century Spanish Texas, predating the missions and presidio in San Antonio. Additionally, Mission Concepción is the earliest location yet discovered that bears the name "Tejas".

Read more here.

Granted, the missions and presidios of East Texas are failures in a failed colonial enterprise, generally only important for creating a buffer zone between the French and British Empires and their Indian allies - with all of the attending viral effects. Nevertheless, the discovery of what until now has been the stuff of no more than local legend and speculation could re-kindle an interest in what is probably the most interesting of Texas Spanish/French/Indian borderlands.