The mission of El Polvo

 Here is Enrique R. Madrid of Redford, writing about El Polvo:

The lost mission of El Polvo is lost not in space, for we know what it looked like and its exact location, but rather it is lost in time as we do not know when it was built or even what its name was. This problem is the reserve of what archeologists normally face. In lieu of archeological dates, one must search the Spanish archives for the date of construction of the Polvo mission and for its name.

His essay on “The Lost Mission of El Polvo” is, to me, a model of what an educated person can do by looking at his or her community. And it’s not just looking, but seeing it, knowing it, understanding it. Madrid read all the archeological reports, but he also talked to people in the community and heard stories that had been handed down for generations.

Madrid’s essay persuaded me that the mission was built in 1715, rather than 1683, and was named San Pedro de Alcántara de los Tapalcomes, rather than San Antonio de los Púliques. The sources from the 1700s are not clear, and in the case of the name, disagree.

How did two entrada leaders, coming to the area in 1747, report two different names for the mission? One didn’t know that the Tapalcomes had moved their community upriver. He assumed that a mission named San Pedro de Alcántara de los Tapalcomes would be in the place where the Tapalcomes were living when he found them. 

The oral and written traditions are confusing. Madrid seems to know all the stories and offers a reasoned explanation of how best to resolve them.

One of the heartbreaking things about El Polvo was that the ruins of the old mission were razed by the county in 1956. Everywhere I’ve seen that fact in print, it’s been noted that the ruins were destroyed at the landowner’s request.

Redford took its modern form in 1870, when Texas offered Mexican immigrants 160 acres and citizenship for settling in Presidio County.

Apparently, the people renovated the ruined mission church and worshipped there until a new church, San José del Polvo, was built in 1914. (Today, the new church is one that was built in 1970.)

I would love to have been able to see the old mission church. I'm glad that Madrid wrote a description of it, which included memories of people who saw it.

• Source: Enrique R. Madrid, “The Lost Mission of El Polvo: Searching for the History of a State Archeological Landmark”; The Journal of Big Bend Studies, Vol. 15, 2003, pp. 55-68.