Las Islitas

Las Islitas was at the junction of the Medina and San Antonio rivers at a ford called El Paso de Borregas or Sheep Pass, fourteen miles southeast of downtown San Antonio in southeastern Bexar County. The settlement probably originated in the eighteenth century, possibly earlier. Its name may have come from the small islands formed at the junction of the rivers, or it may have commemorated the fact that some of the early settlers were Canary Islanders. Many of the settlers, however, possibly antedated the Canary Islanders, for they called themselves "the true and most ancient inhabitants and conquerors of the territory and no expense to the crown." The mixed Spanish, mestizo, and Indian population supported itself with farming and ranching. After the battle of the Alamo Las Islitas suffered from Indian attacks that drove many of its inhabitants to Mexico; other settlers moved to Graytown. By the 1870s only ruins of the old homesteads were visible.