In a time when presidential candidates are talking about building walls the City of Presidio is trying to tear them down in an effort to preserve history.
The City is on a mission to bring its history back to life with a research and excavation project.
In an attempt to tell the city’s history the city is calling on the help from Spain and Mexico to research documents that tell of the trade and mission settlements.
Mayor John Ferguson hopes the project will bring traffic to the town he says, “Presidio is very, very old community but we don’t have much to show for it. We want to bring in people who genuinely want to see something that’s real and maybe never previously known that’s what we want to do.”
William Elms with the Texas Historical Commission agrees the research found will open the doors for visitors.
“We can attract more tourist, and have more information about this area open up so that people know the deep history that we have here.” Says Elms.
To help gather some of that history is the former Ambassador of Spain, Miguel A. Fdez de Mazarambroz he is researching documents dating back to the 1700’s to learn what the Spanish government was doing in the region.
“It is fantastic for Texas not to cut a part of their history but to recover all the history of Texas which goes a long way back, and here Spain is there.” Says Mazarambroz.
This recovery also grabbing the attention of documentary film director William Millet, he’s interested in how this project is bringing three countries together for a common cause.
“This establishes Texas before San Antonio, before its missions, and before east Texas. Everyone agrees, in Spain Mexico, and the United States really began in this area of west Texas.” Says Millet.
The city says the excavation site will eventually be opened to the public with hopes of showing the structures that were once there.
(Information from YourBasin.com)
