An archeology team from Texas Tech University in collaboration with Texas Historical Commission archeologists Kay Hindes, Jim Bruseth, Tiffany Osburn and Brad Jones found the lost site of Mission Nuestra Señora del Espíritu Santo in early December. The site is located in Jackson County, Texas, on a private ranch near the Presidio la Bahía and Fort St. Louis.
The team was led by Tamra Walter, assistant professor of archeology in the Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Social Work.
The site was initially established in the 1680s by the French explorer René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle as part of France’s efforts to colonize the New World. He left the colony to try to find the mouth of the Mississippi before being killed by his own men. The remaining colonists were eventually killed or captured by the native Karankawa tribe.
Spain eventually settled on the site as part of its missionary efforts. However, their habitation was short-lived and became lost when the Spanish left in the mid-1720s. Archaeologists had been looking for the mission site for decades.
Walter credits the support of the Summerlee Foundation, the Texas Historical Commission and the private landowners for making this discovery possible.
“There was a lot of help, and people had been trying to find the site for so long,” Walter said. “We couldn’t have done this without the collaboration from so many people.”
Much of the excitement of this find revolves around the site not only completing the story of La Salle but also providing a snapshot into missionary life in the 1700s.
“There are missions that are about the same age, but the problem is they had been occupied for almost 100 years,” Walter said. “Earlier occupations are obscured by the later ones. At this mission, activity dates from about 1721 or 1722 to 1725 or 1726. We have a snapshot of what it was like to live on the Spanish frontier of Texas at that very moment.”
Accompanying Walter on this discovery were a Texas Tech undergraduate student and two graduate students.
It is an experience Walter knows they will value throughout their careers.
“I was so thrilled my students were with me,” Walter said. “How many students can say they found a lost mission? Not many.”
Tosha Dupras, dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, echoed the value of these types of hands-on experiences for archeology students.
“These kinds of projects are experiences that students can’t get any other way,” Dupras said. “They can’t get it from textbooks. This is a great discovery for our department, college and university. Students will want to come here specifically to work with Dr. Walter and on this mission.”
Walter is busy planning the next steps for this site, which include a magnetic survey to better understand the site’s exact boundaries and excavation of artifacts, which she plans to bring a team of Texas Tech students to complete.
She sees this discovery as an example of the impact Texas Tech can have in understanding Texas history and culture.
“I can’t think of a better example of embodying ‘From Here, It’s Possible™’ because from Texas Tech, we made the impossible possible,” said Walter. “I think it just goes to show that you don’t have to leave Texas to do world class archeology at a world-class site.”
