HOME OF THE ALAMO
San Antonio, Texas. Home of the Alamo. What began as a frontier outpost has grown into the second largest city in the Lone Star State and seventh largest in the nation. Even so, its estimated annual 34 million visitors vastly outnumber the nearly 1.6 million people who call the city home. People from the world over come to enjoy regional attractions, including SeaWorld, Six Flags Fiesta Texas, the River Walk and, of course, the Alamo. Asked what they like most about San Antonio, residents and visitors alike most often cite the region’s temperate climate, vibrant cultural offerings and compelling history that make it a uniquely Southwestern mecca. “The Alamo City” tops the state when it comes to favorite American travel spots.
It has not always been that way, though. For a century and a half after San Antonio’s 1718 founding as a Spanish colonial settlement the location remained an unforgiving frontier. Its isolated spot in what was then the heart of Texas actually contributed to its strategic importance. Yet surrounded by warring tribes and subjected to successive revolts, its hardy residents somehow managed to carve out a living. Present-day citizens memorialize their struggles. At the mention of San Antonio, the 1836 Battle of the Alamo pops to mind (see sidebar, P. 42), but that’s hardly the whole story. In fact, the history of San Antonio is the history of the American West in microcosm.
Conditions in the San Antonio region—at the convergence of drought-tolerant chaparral, forested hills and grassy plains flush with wildlife and watered by springs welling up from the underlying Balcones Escarpment—favored human habitation. By the time of European contact Payaya Indians had named the central spring and its outpouring Yanaguana (meaning unknown), later rechristened the San Antonio River. A smaller spring gave rise to San Pedro Creek. Both waterways, representing lifeblood in an otherwise harsh terrain, played significant roles in the formation of the town. Among San Antonio’s several monikers is the apt “River City.”
