The famous Texas Hill Country is located north of San Antonio and boasts one of the most scenic landscapes in the country and a rich history of sports and entertainment. For example, Spurs Sports & Entertainment, a Double Minor League baseball team founded in 1888, and the city of Alamo have a long association with minor league baseball. A United Soccer League team debuted in 2016 and has been playing in the city's new football stadium, which opened in 2013, since its debut in 2014. In sports, it is a founding member of the Texas League, which dates back to 1888, and home to the Spurs, also owned by Spurs sports & entertainment, as well as the U.S. men's national team and the Texas Rangers.

It was celebrated in 1968 when San Antonio held the HemisFair 68, the first of its kind in Texas.

The year 1691 is also recognized as the birth of the network of roads and the Caminos, which became known as San Antonio - Nacogdoches Road (see Old San Antonio Road). The route, which was first designed in the 1920s and is flanked by the city's main thoroughfare and a series of small streets, is still one of the city's most popular attractions.

Downtown is also home to some of the city's most famous attractions, including the San Antonio Convention Center and the Texas Museum of Natural History. Six Flags Fiesta Texas, meanwhile, has the largest theme park in the United States, with more than 1,000 acres of land. Other attractions include the University of Texas at Austin, Texas A & M University, the US Air Force Academy and Texas Tech University.

Throughout the year, visitors to the Natural History Museum of San Antonio can experience a little cowboy culture with its cowboy-style exhibits, and visit some of the city's most iconic landmarks, such as the Texas State Capitol and the historic Texas House of Representatives.

While most visitors visit the famous symbol of Texas freedom when they come to the city, the historic mission is not the only reason to visit San Antonio. Hailed as the site of the 1836 battle that spawned modern Texas and the birthplace of modern Texas politics and culture, it dates back to 1718, when the Franciscan Padres founded a Spanish mission originally called San Jose Valero. The first of five Spanish missions along the San Antonio River was founded on May 1, 1818. Spanish colonists from northern New Spain came to establish the five missions to colonize the region, evangelize the local Indian population and defend the northern reach of "New Spain."

In 1793, the secularization of the mission began with the construction of the Mission of San Antonio Valero, which later became known as the Alamo and became a military barracks at the beginning of the 19th century. After the US Army Corps of Engineers and the US Army bought land south of the city in 1859 and built the "San Antonio Arsenal" as a weapons depot for the Army troops, a Quartermaster Depot occupied the Alamo from 1864 to 1868. Members of the Texas Republican Party took over the administration of the complex and worked to expand its ownership two decades later in the early 1900s. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, San Austin flourished as a cattle-distribution, trade, and military center for the Southwest border region.

San Antonio experienced a period of slow growth in the late 19th and early 20th centuries compared to other major Texas cities.

At that time, San Antonio became the second-largest city in Texas after Houston and the third largest in the state. The city experienced a period of rapid growth in the 1860s and 1870s, when it became the largest Texas city before Galveston. In the 2000 census, the city remained the third largest city in Texas, but its population of 231,542 fell behind Houston, Dallas, and Austin. At the end of the 20th century and into the early 21st century, San Antonio was still the largest city in our state with a population of over 1,500,000.

The Texas railroad had a profound impact on the city, and San Antonio, once a transportation system, entered a new era of economic growth. The railroads of the late 19th and early 20th centuries led to the founding of the San Francisco Bay Area Railway, the first major railway line in Texas. In the mid-19th century, after the construction of a railroad line from San Diego to San Juan, Texas, San Jose, New Mexico, Houston, Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, and Austin in 1884, San Antonio (formerly transportation systems) entered a new era of economic growth.