Hi: Found at the HANDBOOK OF TEXAS ONLINE Regards, Nan [email protected] - ---------------------------------- (Just one paragraph from this article about the discovery SANTA CRUZ DE SAN SABÁ MISSION. Franciscan missionaries established Mission Santa Cruz de San Sabá in 1757 to Christianize the eastern Apache Indians. The site, rediscovered in the fall of 1993 and proved by archeologists in January 1994, is on the San Saba River about three miles east of the present town of Menard and four miles from the ruins of San Luis de las Amarillas Presidio, which was built to protect the mission ). http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/cgi-bin/web_fetch_doc?dataset=tsha.dst&db=handbo ok&doc_id=3347&query=Hinds Discovery of the mission site, on property owned by Dionitia and Otis Lyckman, culminated a search begun in 1965 by Kathleen Gilmore and Dessamae Lorrain. The quest had been carried on since then by a variety of individuals and agencies. The find, more than a mile east of the 1936 historical monument that tentatively marked the site, ultimately resulted from genealogical research of Mark Wolf, a descendant of one of the soldiers assigned to the mission when it was destroyed. Wolf enlisted the aide of KAY HINDES, a historian, and Grant D. Hall, a Texas Tech University archeologist. Hall directed the 1993 archeological work at the site, which authenticated it with recovery of more than three hundred Spanish artifacts. These included musket balls, religious ornaments, majolica shards, and fired-clay daub, as well as nails, hinges, and other hardware. The site discovery was one of two episodes that renewed interest in the San Sabá Mission in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The other was controversy surrounding the painting, The Destruction of Mission San Sabá, which was confiscated by United States customs agents and returned to Mexico after having been offered for sale in Texas. The painting, done soon after the mission attack and evidently based on eyewitness accounts, is said to be "the earliest extant easel painting by a professional artist depicting an event in Texas history." BIBLIOGRAPHY: Carlos E. Castañeda, Our Catholic Heritage in Texas (7 vols., Austin: Von Boeckmann-Jones, 1936-58; rpt., New York: Arno, 1976). Kathleen Gilmore, A Documentary and Archaeological Investigation of Presidio de San Luis de las Amarillas and Mission Santa Cruz de San Sabá (Austin: State Building Commission, 1967). Grant D. Hall, "Searching for San Saba," Heritage 12 (Spring 1994). Kippra D. Hopper, Vistas: Texas Tech Research, Spring 1994. Paul D. Nathan, trans., and Lesley Byrd Simpson, ed., The San Sabá Papers (San Francisco: Howell, 1959). Sam D. Ratcliffe, "Escenas de Martirio: Notes on the Destruction of Mission San Sabá," Southwestern Historical Quarterly 94 (April 1991). Robert S. Weddle, The San Sabá Mission (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1964). Robert S. Weddle top