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2024-02-10 Mission Espiritu Santo de Zuniga- Goliad TX

 Saturday afternoon, Elaine and I headed over to the mission which is located right in Goliad State Park. I have been several times but it was Elaine's first trip to this area.

We picked a great time to visit as the park actually had someone who was going to doing a guided tour. We elected to go on our own rather than wait but he gave us some tips on where to go and what to see.


Reading that there were apparently some cannibalistic Indians located in this area came as quite a surprise. 

The inside of the church is pretty. It is not currently in use for services and there are no benches for seating.


While this wall fragment is not from this mission, it is what this mission would have been like.


We moved on to the museum part of the mission and Elaine tried on the chain mail and helmet. Both were very heavy. It's hard to imagine what a heavy load the whole soldiers outfit would have been.

Looking at this map shows just how much of the area was taken up with missions. The triangle piece is the only area that is not allocated to mission land.

After the missions were officially disbanded, two priests stayed behind with the town of Goliad.

This portion of wall was the only original wall left before the mission was rebuilt.

These are looms like what would have been used back during mission times along with the yarn showing what natural dyes would have been used to color...everything from plants to types of soil.

This is part of the work that the Indians would have done for the mission.


The Civilian Conservation Corps began rebuilding the ruins of the mission in 1935.

The missions were founded to defend Spain's territory from the French and Indians as well as to convert the local Indians.

We finished our tour just as the tour group including other members of our rally were ready to set out.

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