The children in the Navarro School of San Antonio often express some original and interesting ideas in their Texas history classes. They do not know such a thing as the Alamo; to them it is “La Casa del Santa Anna” (Santa Anna’s house), and they have many interesting stories of what “mi padre grande” said about this old landmark in Texas history and the remarkable things that have happened there.
A very interesting story that seems to be known and believed by nearly all the pupils is that of the old cave, or underground passage, that formerly connected the Alamo with the San Pedro Springs. The entrance to this cave was covered with a big round stone in the very middle of the Alamo. By lifting the stone and going down the steps and following the dark, crooked path, first down, then up, through some water and some mud, one finally came out in a clump of bushes near the big spring in what is now the San Pedro Park. The priests often used this passage to communicate with their friends when the Indians made it unsafe to leave the Alamo by any other way.
Santa Anna learned about it from an old priest, and by this means was able to get his men inside of the Alamo on the last, [[238]]fatal day of the siege. Since that time the cave has been partly filled and cannot be used any more, but the place where it formerly opened in the park is still pointed out by the old people, and the children are strong in their belief of its existence.
LOST CANYON OF THE BIG BEND COUNTRY
By J. Frank Dobie
I
The legend of a lost canyon somewhere in the Big Bend country has had a long and wide circulation. When I was in the Big Bend country some fourteen years ago I heard of it as being “an old story.” A version of the legend came out in the Western Story Magazine, December 2, 1922. Early in 1923, the “Cattle Clatter” department of the San Antonio Express reprinted an enlarged version of the Western Story Magazine legend, giving its source as the New York World. A syndicated feature article was probably the source of both versions.
According to the World legend, a Mexican by the name of Lopez had come into Sanderson from an exploring expedition initiated on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande. He and a Mexican vaquero had followed up a gorge that emptied into the Rio Grande until the gorge widened out into a green valley, an oasis, wherein were grazing a herd of perhaps five hundred buffaloes.