Bead-Nacogdoches Blue Stone Donut TB

This trackable has the modest goal to circulate more than five years and to be moved by at least 25 cachers.  That is a rate of five drops per year for five years, or a drop every 73 days.  As of 20-Jul-20 it had survived for 3.2 years and had been moved by 10 cachers, for an average release every 118 days.

No permission is needed to leave the U.S.  While in the U.S., please drop it in a Premium Member only OR a rural cache near a busy trail or road. Do not place it in an urban cache or abandon it at a caching event where there is no security.  Transport the bug in the original plastic bag for as long as the bag lasts; the bag keeps the trackable clean, protects the number and prevents tangling with other items.  Otherwise, take the trackable anywhere you wish.

Trackable photos are appreciated and will be re-posted here.

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.  Much of the text is from the online Handbook of Texas or texasescapes.com.

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.