In 2018 the Texas Heritage Trails Program will mark a 50-year milestone after its founding as the Texas Travel Trails. Half a century ago, Texas’ heritage trails weren’t the only ones in the nation — the American Petroleum Institute, for instance, created driving trails to celebrate areas like New England, the Land of Lincoln (Illinois) and other regions — but in Texas, one enterprising group of communities had already banded together to create a tourism trail as early as 1961.
The Trail of Six Flags linked six South Texas cities: Victoria, Goliad, Cuero, Refugio, Port Lavaca and Edna. The trail was chartered by the state as a “non-profit historical and patriotic organization” and was officially dedicated on April 14, 1962. Among those participating in the ceremony in Victoria were Vice Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson, Gov. Price Daniel, delegates from Mexico, Spain and France, and mayors of numerous cities, plus a representative of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
The Trail had been organized and mapped in less than a year’s time, as local leaders stepped up to fill a void in tourism promotion at the state level. Texas was “competing for tourists with one hand tied behind our backs,” Gov. Daniel said, quoted in the Cuero Record of Nov. 28, 1961. The state had earlier passed a constitutional amendment to allow tourist advertising, and delegated responsibility for tourism promotion to the Texas Highway Department — but the legislature appropriated no funds for the task.
Mayor Joe E. Kelly of Victoria, who called the first meeting of the Trail of Six Flags partners, articulated the program’s goal: “We hope to recapture some of the romance and adventure associated with the pioneer spirit of the past,” he announced, “and link it in concrete and dramatic fashion to the march of progress as this section of Texas continues to develop.”
Over the next few months, the Trail of Six Flags Association raised money for promotion and commissioned 20 enamel-on-metal highway signs. Each county was responsible for sign placement. (Curious to see one of the signs for yourself? Visit the one mounted in Victoria’s DeLeon Plaza, or discover one in the Refugio County Museum.) People from different chambers of commerce worked together; each chamber was responsible for its own county. By early 1962 the group was ready to preview its ambitious plan via a horseback trail ride to the San Antonio Livestock Show. Starting from Victoria on Feb. 5, 1962, more than 50 riders plus an authentic chuck wagon made the trek over the course of four days.
The association had printed 15,000 travel brochures for broad distribution. They also sent Victoria newspaperman James T. Carter around the world as an ambassador for the Trail, and to bring back a camel, recalling that camels were once used on the trails from Indianola to the west.
But the official launch of the Trail of Six Flags took place with a parade in Victoria on the second Saturday in April. In addition to the aforementioned dignitaries and elected officials on hand, the parade boasted trail riders; marching bands from the Navy station at Corpus Christi, Lackland Air Force Base, and dozens of schools and groups; music composed especially for the occasion;and,yes,acamel.Theanimalthatactually appeared in the parade was a stand-in, loaned by the Houston Shriners. “Hi Jolly, the Trail of Six Flags camel, will not be present due to quarantine regulations that are holding up the animal on the West Coast,” the Cuero Record reported.
“It is possible that the parade was the greatest and most representative ever placed on view in this area,” the paper crowed the next day, “and estimates of the crowd which gathered to watch the demonstrations ranged upward to 50,000.”
The Trail of Six Flags was effective in drawing welcome attention — and tourist dollars — to a large six-county region of South Texas. And as Texas’ pioneering heritage trail, it might well have inspired other trails to come.
