Back in 1836...

[Trailrider]

Today in history...  In the southern part of Texas, near (in) the town of San Antone, lies a fortress all in ruins that the tourists have overrun!  But we take our hats off slowly to the men of the Alamo...to the Thirteen days of Glory at the siege of Alamo! Remember the Alamo!

[Bugscuffle]

The name of this town is San Antonio. It is in Texas. We real Texans do not call it San Antone. San Antone is in France. The Alamo is in the exact center of San Antonio, on the River Walk. It is not in ruins the Chapel, what most people associate the Alamo with, is still upright and it and the barraks have been re-built and serve as a museum today. The grounds are restored and well preserved and serve as a monument to the gallant men that bought, with their lives, the time forthe Texas army to assemble and organize. It is not overrun by tourists, but it does host many hundreds of thousands of visitors in an orderly fashion that are treated to a true account of what transpired there so many years ago and examples of both actual and reproduction artifacts from the battle and the period.

Today in history...  In the southern part of Texas, near (in) the town of San Antone, lies a fortress all in ruins that the tourists have overrun!  But we take our hats off slowly to the men of the Alamo...to the Thirteen days of Glory at the siege of Alamo! Remember the Alamo!

[G.W. Strong]

I will be visiting this site in May. I very much look forward to experiencing it for the first time.

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[Trailrider]

The name of this town is San Antonio. It is in Texas. We real Texans do not call it San Antone. San Antone is in France. The Alamo is in the exact center of San Antonio, on the River Walk. It is not in ruins the Chapel, what most people associate the Alamo with, is still upright and it and the barraks have been re-built and serve as a museum today. The grounds are restored and well preserved and serve as a monument to the gallant men that bought, with their lives, the time forthe Texas army to assemble and organize. It is not overrun by tourists, but it does host many hundreds of thousands of visitors in an orderly fashion that are treated to a true account of what transpired there so many years ago and examples of both actual and reproduction artifacts from the battle and the period.

Pard, I in no way meant to offend or make light of the actual site. I was paraphrasing the lyrics of the song. The problem with most "history", especially in popular song is that it's dead wrong...which is what I was trying to point out.  OTOH, sometimes a song or story will inspire, even if it is factually flawed.  Which was more fun to watch? Fess Parker as David Crockett or whatshisface that made Crockett look like a morose, "more human" version...which is probably closer to the truth?  Who was more heroic in a movie. The sad gent, or John Wayne?  I'm all for truth in history, but sometimes, "when the legend becomes fact, print the legend."  Anyhow, we still salute the heros of the Alamo.

[Shotgun Franklin]

Never paint with a broad brush, every Texas Cowboy I know including me call the town 'San Antone'.

[Tuolumne Lawman]

+1  I used to hunt with my mother in law's boyfriend and his brother, both from Midland, TX.  They called it "San Antone"

[Shotgun Franklin]

The people who live there like 'San Antonio' better but I ain't from there. To eaqch his own.

[Trailrider]

Didn't Ben Johnson, Dobie Cary, and some others sing about "San Antone" in "Rio Grande"? If it was in a John Wayne/John Ford movie it must be correct, right? 

[Tascosa Joe]

My mothers family came from that area.  The old people pronounced it SanAntonya.  All run together. That same group called horses harses. 

[Pancho Peacemaker]

The people who live there like 'San Antonio' better but I ain't from there. To eaqch his own.

I grew up there and Shotgun Franklin is correct. 

Folks from San Antonio don't usually have a drawl like folks in East and West Texas do. 

[Bugscuffle]

The chapel, which we usually asociate with the Alamo was not totally destroyed in the battle. It did fall into ruin and was neglected for many years until rebuilt by a group of private citizens in San Antonio, but I do not remember the name of the organization or the date of the restoration. Originally the chapel was not in the center of San Antonio.It was a short ways outside of town and it was originally named "Mission de San Antonio de Bexar", sometimes spelled "Bejar". Today the county that San Antonio resides in is Bexar County. It is pronounced "Bear" and there are many stories about how it got to be spelled B-E-X-A-R and pronounced "Bear" and they are all false. The true story is simply that Bexar became anglicised into "Bear".

We here in San Antonio are very proud of our Texas heritage and if any of you are going to visit here, please drop me a line, P.M. or E-Mail and I will be proud to fix you up with a personal guided tour, some great Hill Country barbeque and all the tall Texas tales that you can stand. Come on the first saturday of the month and you can shoot with us at The Alamo Area Moderators.

[Pancho Peacemaker]

The chapel, which we usually asociate with the Alamo was not totally destroyed in the battle. It did fall into ruin and was neglected for many years until rebuilt by a group of private citizens in San Antonio, but I do not remember the name of the organization or the date of the restoration. Originally the chapel was not in the center of San Antonio.It was a short ways outside of town and it was originally named "Mission de San Antonio de Bexar", sometimes spelled "Bejar". Today the county that San Antonio resides in is Bexar County. It is pronounced "Bear" and there are many stories about how it got to be spelled B-E-X-A-R and pronounced "Bear" and they are all false. The true story is simply that Bexar became anglicised into "Bear".

We here in San Antonio are very proud of our Texas heritage and if any of you are going to visit here, please drop me a line, P.M. or E-Mail and I will be proud to fix you up with a personal guided tour, some great Hill Country barbeque and all the tall Texas tales that you can stand. Come on the first saturday of the month and you can shoot with us at The Alamo Area Moderators.

Greetings from a fellow native San Antonian.  To clarify a couple of points:

The original name of the mission is "Mission San Antonio de Valero".  It was founded in 1718. It moved twice: 1719 and 1724. The current Alamo chapel that folks visit was constructed on its current site in 1744.  The facade and roof were completed by the US Army in 1850.   This was the first time the chapel had a roof.

"Bexar" comes from  "Villa de San Fernando de Bexar" which was the first Spanish municipal government founded in the region. It was founded in 1731 by the first 31 settlers from the Canary Islands.  My paternal grandmother is a descendant of one of these settler families.  The municipality was named for Viceroy Balthasar Manuel de Zúñiga y Guzmán Sotomayor y Sarmiento, second son of the Duke of Béxar of Spain.   Bexar county was formed in 1836 by the Republic of Texas.  Interestingly,  it initially comprised of land as far west as New Mexico and north to Wyoming.  When we joined th Union,  it was subdivided into 128 counties. 

The preservation group you refered to is "The Daughters of the Republic of Texas".  http://www.drtinfo.org/.   The formed in 1895 to preserve the true and correct history of Texas and its patriots. 

[Bugscuffle]

Pancho, I yield to your superior knowledge of the history of San Antonio and the Alamo. I have followed your posts on this forum for a while and have found them to be accurate and informative. I can only attribute the differences to the fact that I have not read as extensively as you and my references were different from yours. There is so much conflicting "history" of texas and especially the Alamo, that it is difficult to separate fact from fiction. Thanks for the clarification. In my readings over the last few days, I can see that I was confusing two two locations. One, the Mission San Antonio de Valero and the other the Presidio de San Antonio de Bexar. The presidio having been reloacated across the street from the mission before the battle at the Alamo. The presidio apparently derived it's name from  "Villa de San Fernando de Bexar" , as you mentioned.