Old Spanish Trail

Old Spanish Trail. Florida's Historic Mission Road. River Landing Road follows the approximate route of the "Old Spanish Trail" or "Mission Road," a colonial era path that led west across Florida from St. Augustine. Spanish friars and soldiers used the road to reach a chain of missions or religious centers that extended across the colony in the 17th and early 18th centuries., Early missionaries and soldiers crossed in this vicinity as early as 1674, but explorer Marcis Delgado left the first written description of the crossing in 1686, noting that the river was "540 feet of width" and specifically mentioning that the crossing was below the confluence of the Chattahoochee and Flint Rivers., Don Laureano de Torres y Ayala, a newly appointed governor of Florida, passed here on June 8, 1693, reporting that he "crossed the stream with considerable difficulty." One of the friars with his expedition noted that they crossed "in a dugout canoe.", Spanish use of the trail all but ended after English-led raiders destroyed the North Florida missions in 1702-1704. Lt Phillip Pittman, an English officer described the crossing in around 1768. He said it was "below the forks" of the Chattahoochee and Flint Rivers and near the Creek Indian town of "Tomothlies," a well-known community on the high ground west of the Apalachicola River., The trail remained in use through the Second Spanish Era (1783-1821). The Tanner Map of 1823 shows it crossing the river at this point. U.S. 90 (the "Old Spanish Trail") commemorates its memory today.