San Antonio’s Historic Network of Missions

Presently retired, Reid Hackney is a longtime Texas business executive who engaged with A’GACI as chief financial officer and vice president. An avid cyclist with a passion for exploring his local area, Reid Hackney enjoys visiting urban parks and missions in San Antonio. With French settlements in Louisiana sparking a rivalry, in the late 17th century, Spain established a network of a half-dozen missions across what is now eastern Texas. Several of these missions failed due to disease and drought, as well as changing political priorities that starved them of financial stability. Ultimately, three of the missions were relocated to along the San Antonio River in the 1720s, with five total riverside missions joining the Presidio San Antonio de Béxar. From the 1780s onward, friction between Mission Indians and tribes such as the Comanche and Apache, coupled with limited military reinforcements, led community members to move to safety within mission walls. Eventually, they were largely abandoned as US frontier expansion came to fore. Despite their prolonged decline, the missions have remained vital cultural artifacts over the decades and are now contained within the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park. The entire park spans 86 mission-related structures across 21 historical and archeological sites.