Bead-Nacogdoches Tan Stone TB

Please drop this item in rural OR Premium Member Only caches.  Do not place it in an urban cache or abandon it at a caching event.  Transport the bug in the original plastic bag for as long as the bag lasts; the bag keeps the trackable clean and prevents tangling with other items.  Otherwise, take the travel bug anywhere you wish.  No permission is needed to leave the U.S.

Travel bug photos are appreciated.  I will re-post them here, where they can be seen by other cachers.

This is one of a series of large beads obtained from different places and converted into travel bugs.  They are named for Texas towns with interesting names or histories.

Local promotional literature from Nacogdoches touts it as "the oldest town in Texas."  Evidence of settlement at the same site dates back to 10,000 years ago.  It is near or on the site of Nevantin, the primary village of the Nacogdoche tribe of Caddo Indians.  It remained a Caddo Indian settlement until the early 19th century.  

In 1716 Spain established a mission there.  That was the first European construction in the area.  The "town" of Nacogdoches got started after the Spaniards decided that the French were no longer a threat and that maintaining the mission was too costly.  So, in 1772, they ordered all settlers in the area to move to San Antonio.  Some were eager to escape the wilderness, but others had to be forced from their homes by soldiers.

Colonel Antonio Gil Y'Barbo, a prominent Spanish trader, emerged as the leader of the settlers, and in the spring of 1779, he led a group back to Nacogdoches.  Later that summer, Nacogdoches received designation from Spain as a pueblo, or town, thereby making it the first "town" in Texas.   

The city has been under more flags than the state of Texas, claiming nine flags.  In addition to the Six Flags of Texas, it also flew under the flags of the Magee-Gutierrez Republic, the Long Republic, and the Fredonian Rebellion.  People from the United States began moving to settle in Nacogdoches in 1820 and Texas' first English-language newspaper was published there.  However, the first newspaper published, in the 1700s, was in Spanish.