Antonio Gil Y’Barbo, a prominent Spanish trader, emerged as the leader of the settlers and, in the spring of 1779, 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. Y’Barbo was named Lt. Governor of the new town and established the rules and laws under which the city was governed. He laid out streets with the intersecting El Camino Real and El Calle del Norte as his central point. On the main thoroughfare he built a stone house for use in his trading business. The house, or Old Stone Fort as it is called today, became a gateway from the United States to the vast Texas Frontier.