COMANCHE LOOKOUT

I received E-Mail that said:

There is a tower on a road that crosses Highway 410 by a Supercenter Wal-Mart and Rolling Oaks Mall. The tower sits up on top of a steep hill and is on a piece of private property that is on a busy road. No one knows when it was built but it is told an elderly man built it as the first part of his castle after visiting Spain and seeing the castles there. The book I mentioned in my other e-mail has a story on the tower.

Later, I received E-Mail that said:

The tower and hill in question are no longer on private property, they are owned by the City of San Antonio Parks and Recreation Dept. Many years ago, my friends and I used to offroad up there, the police loved to crackdown on it, but, now that its a park, most people respect the no powered-vehicle rules. The story the person sent you is way off, the tower is what is left of an old fort that was used as an indian lookout post. I will try to get some pictures for you next time i am in that area, as the tower is interesting, and, when no one is around, makes a great wall for practicing rock climbing and rapelling. For future reference, the tower and land is usually referred to as "commanche hill" or "commanche lookout (hill)". The saprd has it listed as:

Name: Commanche Lookout
Location: Judson@Nacogdoches
Size: 80.9 Acres
Type: Community Park

Later, I received E-Mail that said:

I ran across your site looking for information on Commanche Hill Tower. I have not found it anywhere else on the net. I saw that you were requesting pictures for it so I volunteered to send you some. I was suprised not to find any information about the tower at the site.

I guestimate the tower is about 15 minutes from the San Antonio airport, 30 minutes from Downtown San Antonio, 90 minutes from Austin.

I am not sure how accurate the following information is:
My Grandfather owned the property (but sold it in the 40's-50's I am guessing.) I asked my Grandmother about it and she said it was a lookout tower("Look Out Hill"). The settlers used it to watch out for indians on the prowl. I asked my Grandfathers' first cousin about it and he said it was used by the indians to see settlers coming into San Antonio so they could attack them. I asked a stranger that was visiting while I was about it and he said he heard it was first used by the indians, then the settlers took it over.

The tower is surrounded by an eight foot fence. I am guessing the walls are 12 feet wide each. I am guessing it stands 34 feet tall. I can see four layers where the 3 floors and roof used to be plus 2 feet above the roof. It has rock on the outside, concrete smeared on inside. I see some iron in the rock work so I question the age of it(could be from repairs). The North side has what looks like one tall doorway(could be from decay, could have been a window above the doorway) and 3 windows, the other sides have what looks like gun ports(18 inches x 5 inches). I am not sure how the floors and roof were held in place. It has a dirt floor, no floors and no roof now.

Later, I received E-Mail that said:

The information you have on the Commanche Lookout from the City of San Antonio link is correct.Years ago,on the gate posts made of stone, sat two stone busts of Commanche warriors,but those have probably been stolen. This may have occured after one of the local papers did an article on it. Just like the old stage coach marker that sat on Bulverde Road disappeared after an article in the paper. It had on it the milage to various towns,and dated to the 1850s or 60s.

The tower sits on Nacodoghes Road,which was part of the old Camino Real or Kings Highway as it is known in English. This road crosses over Loop 1604, Not 410, which is a loop road inside the city limits and is part of Interstate 10.

Later, I received E-Mail that said:

As a child growing up in the then developing area of Comanche lookout hill , my friends and I used to play in the castle and surrounding dungeons as we called them , though they were probably just open cellars , your site brought back enjoyable memories from 25 years ago. The Comanche busts were there when I last was there 1981 .

Later, I received E-Mail that said:

I never would have thought that there would be info about comanche hill.. I use to go up there when i was a little boy, back in the 80's. The rumor was back then that there were devil worshipers that hung around the top of the hill!!!! so every time i went up there, my heart was beating to say the least....another rumor was someone having their head chopped off up there...don't know if all the killing rumors are true about that hill.

I think they left only one castle up...when i went up there, their were two castles...the other one was smaller and it had a metal ladder on the side of it. i remember little houses on the top that were torn up. One of the houses was called the "micky mouse house" cause of the graffiti in it. I'm glad they kept that one castle up though and made it into a park

Later, I received E-Mail that said:

I just found your site and was a lil' dismayed by some of the misinformation that some of your submitters sent in regards to Comanche Lookout or as my friends and I used to call it, "Comanche Hill". I live in the shadow of Comanche Hill. In the and in the 1980's my friends and I used to take our 4x4's up there. The remaining tower used to have stairs to get to the top but they are now gone.

The city of San Antonio has since gated the tower off to the public. There used to be what looked like half finished cellars up there but the city filled them in. We used to have bonfires in those "cellars" and they could not be seen from the street. I never saw the comanche statues and have never heard of them until reading your website.

I have long been interested in the history of this place. I had often imagined brave soul that may have been perched atop the tower scouring the landscape for the coming of the Comanches or other hostile forces. I was able to locate a local author of paranormal stories about San Antonio and South Texas, Docia Schultz Williams, and was disappointed when she told me the truth. The structures atop Comanche lookout are 20th century. It seems that after World War I, an officer bought the land as he came to San Antonio to retire. He so loved the castles he saw in Europe that he was determined to have his own. He begun with two towers and had started on the cellars when he died. The land was abandoned and the towers stood until one had either collapsed or had been torn down.

For a while many people thought it was haunted because lights could be seen up there at night. Many believed it to be the ghost of the officer, still up there with his lantern building his castle. Actually, it was curious kids up there with flashlights looking around and when I was a teen it was me and my friends with our 4x4's.

I know this is going to disappoint a lot of people who were drawn into the romantic notion of an old west fort but those old stories were not the case. Many will refuse to believe it but I can't blame them. I would like to know more about these statues that one of your submitters mentioned. I had never heard of them and I would like to learn more of them.

As for The Comanche lookout of today, it is now a public park for nature hikes or hiking with paved parking.

Later, I received E-Mail that said:

I wanted to send you a link that the city has about Comanche. http://www.sanantonio.gov/sapar/comanchehis.asp?res=1024&ver=true I can't say if it's totally accurate but it must rank up there since they have all the records at their disposal. It is a public park now and it is very strange going up there with my kids and dog to walk...as a teenager we use to go up there in our trucks at night with the lights off to avoid being arrested for trespassing! hehehe, but the view over the city was magnificent from the top... :)

Later, I received E-Mail that said:

I did notice that your listing for Comanche Lookout Park in San Antonio Texas was a bit off, and filled with quite a few urban legends. I am Vice-President of the newly formed Friends of Comanche Lookout Park community group here in SA and thought I might disprove some of the rumors that some folks have emailed to you about the park. (I myself am guilty of believing these at one point...as a child the only name I knew for the tower was "The Indian Watchtower" and had quite a few daydreams about US soldiers scouting for rebel indians from atop the tower.)

As a previous email stated, the highway nearby the park is Loop 1604, not Loop 410. Yes the hill was used by local natives to scout game at nearby creeks, and yes it was later used by travellers and soldiers, and yes the Camino Real (King's Highway) did run at its base. The remnants of the Camino Real are now Nacogdoches Road which runs along the base of the hill and park. However there was no fort located at the top of the hill, and the tower was not used by settlers or soldiers as it was not built until the first half of the 20th century (circa 1923.) There was another tower (no longer there) and several foundations, filled-in "cellars", and walls that are still lurking about. There's even an old stone wall and planter around a tree hidden on one of the more secluded trails near the tower. The complete information and pictures can be found at the link in the last Comanche Lookout email posted: ( http://www.sanantonio.gov/sapar/comanchehis.asp?res=1024&ver=true) This also, unfortunatley, disproves the long-time San Antonio legend that the park and tower are haunted by the ghosts of soldiers that were stationed at the "fort" and their native counterparts. (Darn.)

It is most important to note that the City of San Antonio has begun restoration on the existing tower. From what my group has been led to believe, the City is following the original plans of Mr. Coppock (the man who's dream it was to build the "castle" in the first place.) This restoration is all part of an ongoing project to renovate the park. There is also a library being built on the Comanche property at the corner of Nacogdoches and Judson roads, a manmade "marshland", and a small amphitheatre, plus several new trails. It will be quite impressive once finished, although it will be quite difficult to keep graffiti artists from defacing the tower as they have over the past couple of decades. Even now as its fenced off, kids throw parties up at the tower and deface it. (This is partially why my group was formed. We exist to keep the public informed about the park as well as to act as watch-dogs. We monitor the tower and the surrounding property as much as possible, and work hand in hand with the City of San Antonio Park Police to resolve any park issues and curb any illegal activity at the park.)

There was mention in some of the emails of two large stone heads of Comanche Indians at the site, supposedly stole about 20 years ago. I am not sure if this is urban legend or reality, as I have never seen the pictures of these statues myself. The person I heard it from, however, was a representative of the architectural firm that designed the library which is going up on the property. He claims that there was a newspaper article on the heads several years ago before they were stolen. This is something that I have been intending to investigate further, hopefully through the resources of the San Antonio Public Library.

On 4-28-05, I received E-Mail that said:

I read your page. Here is your proof of the Indian Heads that once existed there. From my knowledge one of the daughters of Col. Coppock has one of the busts in her garden. My Grandfather, along with Col. Coppock, and his sons help build the structures and the tower (used for food storage primarily). Col Coppock was a, according to my mother, one of the nicest people your could ever meet. They are now building a public library at the base of the hill

On 11-7-08, I received E-mail that said:

I am a descendant of the Reeh family.

My Dad used to hunt up there as a kid with permission from Col . Coppock. He talked about the cellar structures and the tower at length, and even found an arrowhead. When I was young all of the local kids used to go up there in their 4 wheel-drive vehicles.

Nice to see that it's a park, and my kids see a family name on the sign.

On 10-6-09, I received e-mail that said:

Just wanted you to know, that the Tower in San Antonio Texas is NOT near Rolling Oaks Mall nor near a Wal-Mart. It was across the street from a Albertsons, a few years back (they went out of business here in SA). It is near a library and on a state park (currently) it is on the corner of Judson and Nacogdoches rds.

I have lived in SA for almost 38 years and have heard nothing about the heads (but that doesn't mean it isn't true) reading this page is the first i have heard of them. The outdoor classrooms are built... I have never been in the tower and know nothing about the history, just wanted to snap a few pics for you and let you know the library is built and i have seen nothing on the other stuff your contributors have posted.

Back to "Castles of the United States"

Indian Head photo courtesy of Abel Morones.
Third and fourth photos courtesy of Rick.