Mission Valley and Tonkawa Bank put older river history close to town

The Guadalupe carried a mission and presidio long before Victoria had a courthouse square. In April 1726, Espiritu Santo Mission and Loreto Presidio moved from a site probably on Garcitas Creek to Mission Valley. That place is about 14 miles northwest of Victoria on FM 236. Both moved again in 1749 to the area now known as Goliad.

The mission farmed and raised cattle and horses. Workers built at least two dams and stone ditches, called acequias, to carry river water to fields. The Handbook of Texas says ruins, a concrete waterway, and two dams could still be seen when its entry was researched. The site is on private land.

Tonkawa Bank brings this older map close to town. The site lies near the Guadalupe in Riverside Park. It was tied to the mission as a rancheria and visita, and it also served as a busy low-water crossing. Archaeologists worked there in the 1970s. The site joined the National Register of Historic Places in 1981. Today's park occupies a river corridor people had used for travel, work, and community life for generations.