Mission Santa Cruz de San Sabá Spanish Colonial Missions of the Southwest |

During the Spanish period in Texas, complex interactions between the American Indian groups and the Spanish and French sometimes culminated in violence with missions at the center. One particularly well-documented event was the destruction of Mission Santa Cruz de San Sabá, near what is today Menard, Texas. The Mission San Sabá was established in 1757 for the Lipan Apache. The Lipan Apache, however, had enemies among the Comanche and other northern Texas Indian groups, who, after learning that their enemies would be at the mission, attacked and burned the mission. San Sabá was abandoned after the attack. It was once called "the lost mission of Texas" because its exact location was unknown until the early 1990s. Today, the site is a Texas Historic Landmark and the Presidio San Sabá is on the National Register of Historic Places.

In 1756, Father Terreros and his missionaries, along with nine Tlaxcalans to help teach the catechism to mission neophytes, reached San Antonio. From there, they proceeded to the Río San Sabá and founded Mission Santa Cruz de San Sabá. Nearby, the soldiers established Presidio San Luis de las Amarillas, or Presidio de San Sabá.

On March 16, 1758, a group of over 1,500 Comanche, Tejas, Tonkawas, Bidais and other northern Texas tribes surrounded the mission looking for Apache. They looted and burned the mission buildings, and although the group was specifically seeking Lipan Apache, two priests, four soldiers, and two mission residents died in the attack. The Comanche considered it a great victory against old enemies, but from the Spanish perspective, it was a massacre. The event touched off a series of Comanche raids. In 1759, over 600 Spanish soldiers from as far away as San Luis Potosí, settlements in Coahuila and Sierra Gorda, along with Tlaxcalan and Apache allies launched a punitive campaign against the northern groups, killing 55 warriors and taking 150 prisoners.

Although the events at Mission Santa Cruz de San Sabá were well documented and the Lipan Apache remembered them in oral histories, San Sabá's location was lost for most of the 20th century and was the subject of searches for many decades. During the Indian raid in 1758, fire destroyed most of the mission's temporary structures of wood, wattle, and daub. Weather and soil tilling over time erased the above-surface features and a large portion of the sub-surface features. In contrast, the Presidio San Sabá was rebuilt of stone in 1761, sending a message to French and American Indian groups that the Spanish intended to stay. The presidio only lasted until 1769, when it and the 130-mile swath of land leading to San Antonio were finally abandoned to the Comanche and their allies. Its more permanent construction made the location easier to find in the 20th century. A Works Progress Administration project rebuilt a portion of the fort for the Texas Centennial in 1936, and today it is open to the public.

Mission Santa Cruz de Sabá is a reminder of the complex and sometimes violent interactions among American Indian groups and the Spanish and demonstrates how the Lipan Apache strategically used alliances with the Spanish and missions. The San Sabá Mission site is three miles east of Menard on Farm-to-Market Road 2092. The Texas Centennial Marker is along the highway immediately beside an alfalfa field. A historical marker plaque designates the site today, but there are no visible structures. For more information about the site, visitors can stop by the reconstructed site of the Presidio San Sabá. Visitors can walk through the site, picnic near the stone walls, and enjoy the interpretive panels that detail the history of the presidio and mission. The presidio was reconstructed by a Works Progress Administration project in 1936. Today the Site of Presidio San Luis de las Amarillas, also known as Presidio San Sabá, is on the National Register of Historic Places. Landscaping with native plants and interpretive materials help visitors to visualize what the area looked like in the mid-18th century. Visitors can also get a sense of the historic landscape along the Historic Ditch Walk in downtown Menard that features several historic sites, including the presidio, and walk along the irrigation canal first cut by the Spanish in the 1750s and still used by local farmers today.

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