Pinta Trail (Texas)

[5] Historic maps and original Texas land surveys establish that north of San Antonio the trail traversed the Balcones Escarpment through a canyon that is now the route of the Northwest Military Highway.

[10][11] The Pinta Trail makes its first appearance in the journals of Nicolás Lafora and the Marqués de Rubí chronicling a 1767 inspection of Spanish frontier presidios.

In April 1846, German settlers under the auspices of the Adelsverein colonization company ventured west from their initial townsite at New Braunfels and picked up the Pinta Trail north of San Antonio, following it to found their next frontier settlement at Fredericksburg.

[2][14] The trail was used by Ferdinand Roemer in January 1847, Lieutenant Francis T. Bryan in June 1849, and John Russell Bartlett in October 1850, all on journeys passing through Fredericksburg.

[7][9][8] In 1854, Frederick Law Olmsted observed that the lower extent of the trail was overgrown and disused, having been abandoned in favor of a new road that passed through Boerne on the way to Fredericksburg via Welfare, with a branch offering an alternate route through Sisterdale.