GPS with the NPS

Explore the mission using GPS and receive a special Junior Ranger patch to add to your collection!

The National Park Service uses Global Positioning Systems (GPS) to map important sites for research and protection. GPS are found in everything from cellphones to car navigation systems. Spanish explorers navigated to the Americas using maps with latitude and longitude. We use latitude and longitude today but with new tools, like GPS and satellites. We will use GPS as we navigate through the missions history.

 

A park ranger holding a cell phone.  NPS Photo

Follow these steps to complete the
GPS with NPS junior ranger activity:

1. Open a mapping app in your smart phone.
2. Copy and paste the latitude/longitude for each waypoint into the mapping search bar.
3. Follow the sidewalks to your destination point (red pin). At your destination look around and answer the question.
4. Follow steps 1-3 to your next waypoint.
5. Once you've visited all waypoints, go to the Visitor Center to get your Junior Ranger patch!

 

Mesquite tree outside Mission San Jose.  NPS Photo

Waypoint 1

Latitude/Longitude
29.360824, -98.480169

People have lived in South Texas for at least 10,000 years. These early inhabitants were hunter-gatherers, finding all their food in nature. They hunted wild animals, fished in the river, and gathered fruits and nuts. They traveled seasonally in South Texas, returning to their hunting and gathering grounds using natural landmarks, the sun, and the stars instead of a compass or GPS.

Look around! This is a mesquite tree. Flowers on the mesquite tree turn into edible bean pods in late spring. Do you see any flowers or bean pods?

 

Inside the living quarters.  NPS Photo

Waypoint 2

Latitude/Longitude
29.36124070485427, -98.48078186774566

In the 1700s, the arrival of the Lipan Apache, European diseases, and a severe drought made life difficult for the Indigenous people. These changes pushed some local peoples to join the Spanish missions. By entering the missions, they gained food, shelter and protection. They stayed in apartments like the one you’re standing in front of.

If you were to move like they did, what is one thing you would take with you?

 

Mission San Jose church façade.  NPS Photo

Waypoint 3

Latitude/Longitude
29.36251940107109, -98.4802179333073

Missions were self-sufficient communities with churches at the heart of it all. The goal of a mission was to convert the Indigenous people to Spanish citizens. These new citizens pledged to do three things: learn a trade, become a Catholic, and learn Spanish.

As a Junior Ranger, what three things do you pledge to do?

 

Inside the reconstructed gristmill building.  NPS Photo

Waypoint 4

Latitude/Longitude
29.36279838581935, -98.47965426739326

The gristmill ground wheat into flour. Can you find the wooden water wheel? Water from the acequia turned the wooden wheel and powered the mill. The power from the water wheel moved the two millstones above in the millhouse. The movement of the two millstones ground the wheat into flour.

What do you think they made with the flour?

 

View from a convento window of Mission San Jose church.  NPS Photo

Waypoint 5

Latitude/Longitude
29.36210190068799, -98.47946260915488

You are in the convento, where the Franciscan Friars lived. You will see several architectural styles, some arches are rounded and others pointed. Some arches are very old, and some are a bit newer.

Can you figure out which ones are original and which have been rebuilt?

 

A GPS unit and GPS junior ranger patch.  NPS Photo

You've completed GPS with the NPS!

Congratulations, Junior Ranger! Did you know, the San Antonio Missions are over 300 years old? While the missions could withstand bad weather and attacks in the past, the structures have become more fragile with age. Make our missions your mission. We need your help in protecting them!

As a Junior Ranger, how can you help us to preserve and protect the missions for future generations?

Go to the Visitor Center at Mission San Jose to pick up your Junior Ranger patch!