Menard: The Mission That Lasted Less Than a Year

Near present-day Menard, on a bend of the San Saba River, the Spanish built Mission Santa Cruz de San Sabá and Presidio San Luis de las Amarillas in April of seventeen fifty-seven. The purpose was to convert the Lipan Apache, who had asked for the mission as protection against Comanche raids. The experiment lasted less than a year.

On March sixteenth, seventeen fifty-eight, roughly two thousand warriors sacked and burned the log mission. The presidio stood helpless nearby. The fort limped on until seventeen seventy-two, when a royal decree officially abandoned it.

In the eighteen seventies and eighties, cattle drivers on the trails north and west found the presidio's crumbling walls still useful for holding herds near the river. Part of the presidio was reconstructed in nineteen thirty-six, the year of the Texas Centennial. They still stand outside of town.