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Clute, Texas

Everything Clute is known for

1 song mention this city

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Music in Clute

Songs About Clute

the ballad of lavern and captain flint
guy clark
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Artists From Clute

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Rivers & Roads in Song near Clute

Songs written about the waterways and highways that run near Clute.

Brazos River 43 songs FM 3005 2 songs Interstate 45 8 songs Texas Colorado River 6 songs U.S. Route 59 9 songs

History of Clute

The War Boom That Woke a Crossroads RoadyGoat

For more than a century Clute was nothing but plantation ground and a handful of houses. What changed it was a war and a metal. In the early 1940s the Dow Chemical Company built next door at Freeport, and on January 21, 1941, Dow poured the first ingot of magnesium made from Gulf seawater, the first time anyone had mined the ocean for metal. Magnesium was a strategic, lightweight metal for aircraft, and the Freeport works became the Allies' major source. When the United States entered the war that December, the plant was treated as a national-defense asset: a local paper reported soldiers with fixed bayonets guarding the approaches and the Brazos River bridge, giving the area the feel of being under martial law. Thousands of workers and construction crews poured into southern Brazoria County, and tiny Clute exploded. Population went from ten in 1933 to 700 by 1950 and 3,200 by 1954, and the town billed itself as the Hub of Brazosport. Clute incorporated as Clute City in May 1952. (Source: Handbook of Texas; Dow Chemical company history.)

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Willie Man-Chew and the Great Texas Mosquito Festival RoadyGoat

Clute decided long ago that if you can't beat the mosquitoes, you throw them a party. The Great Texas Mosquito Festival has run since 1981, every year on the last Thursday, Friday, and Saturday of July at Clute Municipal Park, drawing roughly 18,000 people over three days. Its mascot is Willie Man-Chew, an inflatable mosquito that towers about 26 feet tall, decked out in a cowboy hat, boots, and an oversized proboscis. The festival's tall tale says Willie drifted into Clute in the summer of 1981, perched on a moss-hung oak, admired the lush green yards of southern Brazoria County, and decided he'd found the land of his dreams, then recruited a crew of humans he jokingly calls his Swat Team to run the show. The real event is pure Gulf Coast: carnival rides, a mosquito-calling contest, cook-offs, a 5K, live music, and contests built around the bug everyone here loves to hate. The whole thing turns the coast's most famous nuisance into the reason to come to town. (Source: Great Texas Mosquito Festival; Texas Highways.)

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Selena's Brother Learned Music in a Clute Classroom RoadyGoat

Before he produced and co-wrote the hits that made his sister Selena a legend, A.B. Quintanilla was a kid in the band hall at Brazoswood High School in Clute. The Quintanilla family settled in next-door Lake Jackson, and the kids went to school here. A Brazoswood teacher later remembered Abraham as a quiet, gifted student with an obvious feel for music and art, playing guitar in the school's jazz ensemble. He graduated in 1983, the same era he was already working out the bass lines and arrangements that would shape Tejano music. He went on to produce and write much of Selena's catalog, then founded the chart-topping Kumbia Kings and Kumbia All Starz, becoming one of the most influential producers in Latin music. It's easy to drive through Clute and see only refineries and a high school, but the polished, danceable sound that carried Tejano onto pop charts was partly worked out by a teenager in this town's music program. (Source: Wikipedia; Texas Monthly.)

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Quintanilla Perez, Selena [Selena]

1971

Singer Selena Quintanilla Perez, known simply as Selena, the daughter of Abraham and Marcella (Perez) Quintanilla, Jr., was born on April 16, 1971, in Lake Jackson, Texas. She married Christopher Perez, guitarist and member of the band Selena y Los Dinos (slang for "the Boys") on April 2, 1992. They had no children. Selena attended Oran M. Roberts Elementary School in Lake Jackson and West Oso Junior High in Corpus Christi, where she completed the eighth grade. In 1989 she finished high school through the American School, a correspondence school for artists, and enrolled at Pacific Western University in business administration correspondence courses. Her career began when she was eight. From 1957 to 1971 her father played with Los Dinos, a Tejano band. He taught his children to sing and play in the family band and taught Selena to sing in Spanish. They performed at the family restaurant, Pappagallo, and at weddings in Lake Jackson. After 1981 the band became a professional act. In 1982 the group moved to Corpus Christi and played in rural dance halls and urban nightclubs, where Tejano music flourishes. In her late teens Selena adopted fashions sported by Madonna. Preceded by Lydia Mendoza and Chelo Silva , Mexican-American star vocalists of the 1930s, and by pioneer orchestra singer Laura Canales in the 1970s, Selena became a star in Tejano music. She won the Tejano Music Award for Female Entertainer of the Year in 1987, and eight other Tejano awards followed. By the late 1980s Selena was known as "la Reina de la Onda Tejana" ("the Queen of Tejano music") and "una mujer del pueblo." Her popularity soared with annual awards from the Tejano Music Awards and a contract with EMI Latin Records in 1989. At the 1995 Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, the band attracted 61,041 people, more than Clint Black, George Strait, Vince Gill, or Reba McEntire. Selena y Los Dinos recorded with Tejano labels GP, Cara, Manny, and Freddie before 1989. Their albums include Alpha (1986), Dulce Amor (1988), Preciosa (1988), Selena y Los Dinos (1990), Ven Conmigo (1991), Entre a Mi Mundo (1992), Selena Live (1993), Amor Prohibido (1994), and Dreaming of You (1995). The band's popularity surged with Ven Conmigo . Entre a Mi Mundo made Selena the first Tejana to sell more than 300,000 albums. In 1993 she signed with SBK Records to produce an all-English album, but it was eventually replaced with the bilingual Dreaming of You . Despite her success in the Spanish-language market, mainstream society largely ignored Selena until around 1993. In 1994 Texas Monthly named her one of twenty influential Texans and the Los Angeles Times interviewed her. That same year, Selena Live won a Grammy for Best Mexican-American Album. Also in 1993 and 1995, Lo Nuestro Billboard gave the band awards in four categories. Selena y Los Dinos was a cross-over act in Tejano, romance, cumbia, tropical, pop, rap, and salsa in Spanish and English; Selena was not only bilingual but biethnic. Before her death, the band sold more than 1.5 million records. By the mid-1980s Selena had crossed into the national Latino and Latin-American market. A recording with the Puerto Rican band Barrio Boyzz furthered inroads into this area. Selena y Los Dinos began to acquire a following in Mexico (Matamoros) as early as 1986. Along with Emilio Navaira, Selena y Los Dinos attracted 98,000 fans in Monterrey, and thus popularized Tejano music in Mexico. In 1994 the band played in New York to a Mexican and Central American audience. The band was the first Tejano group to make Billboard's Latin Top 200 list of all-time best-selling records. Selena was also known to Latin-American television audiences. At the age of twelve or thirteen she was introduced on the Johnny Canales Show . She appeared on Sábado Gigante , Siempre en Domingo , El Show de Cristina , and the soap opera Dos Mujeres, Un Camino . She also made a cameo appearance in the 1995 film Don Juan DeMarco . Advertisements also made Selena popula

Tsha Handbook → · 3.6 mi away

Mammoth Lake

1822

Mammoth Lake, formerly a cavernous sand pit, has had a vital influence on the development of clute and the surrounding area. In prehistoric times, nomadic Native American tribes lived in this region, hunting abundant game that thrived near the area’s rivers. Anglo settlers came here in the early 1800s. A number of significant individuals once owned this land. Jared E. Groce, an Alabama plantation owner, purchased this property from the Mexican government in 1822. He gave the land to his daughter Sarah as a present when she married William H. Wharton, a lawyer who worked to establish the Republic of Texas and served as president of the convention of 1833. A number of other residents and businesses have also owned this property. Following the Civil War, this former cavern was valued for its deposits of sand. By the 1940s and 1950s, the community of clute experienced significant growth when industrial and chemical plants developed nearby. The sand, sandy clay and clay excavated from the pit were used to build foundations and roads, and to fill up low-lying lands. Vernor material and equipment (VME), which purchased the property in 1986, excavated approximately four million cubic yards of material between 1979 and 2006. In 2003, bones were uncovered during excavation of the site. VME invited a team of archeologists to conduct a dig; they found a partial skeleton from a mammoth which was approximately 14 feet high to its shoulders and up to 17 feet long. Also uncovered were pottery shards and a wooden bowl. In 2006, VME began work to convert the sand pit into a lake to be used for scuba diving.

Historical Marker →

Velasco

1821

Landing place of the "Lively" first vessel bringing immigrants to Austin's colony in 1821. There the Battle of Velasco, between Texas colonists and Mexican troops, was fought June 26, 1832. A treaty of peace between Texas and Mexico was signed there May 14, 1836, by Presidents David G. Burnet and Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna but was never ratified by Mexico.

Historical Marker → · 4.3 mi away

Colonel Robert M. Coleman

1836

Erected by the State of Texas In Memory of Colonel Robert M. Coleman Signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence Aide-de-camp to General Sam Houston at San Jacinto Colonel of the first regiment of Texas Rangers Born in Kentucky in 1799 Drowned at the mouth of the Brazos in July 1837

Historical Marker → · 4.6 mi away

Muzzy, Mary Sue Blair Hairgrove

1967

Mary Sue Blair Hairgrove Muzzy, Texas state legislator, daughter of John E. Blair and Mable Sue (Gibbs) Blair, was born in Argyle, Texas, on October 1, 1922. The youngest of four children, she grew up on her family's farm near Justin, Texas. After graduating from Justin High School in 1940, Mary Sue Blair moved to Dallas to attend Draughan's Business College where she met her first husband James Albert "Jim" Hairgrove. The couple married in Rockwall, Texas, on October 7, 1941. Jim Hairgrove served in the U. S. Navy during World War II , and, after his return, the couple lived in Muskogee, Oklahoma, before moving to Rosenberg, Texas, where they managed the radio station KFRD. The couple had two children, Anita Hairgrove Schofe and Robert Dale Hairgrove; they raised their children in Lake Jackson where the family owned and operated two local radio stations, KBRZ and KLJT-FM. In January 1966 Jim Hairgrove, known for his civic engagement, announced his candidacy for a seat in the Texas House of Representative from the newly-created District 20F, which encompassed both Brazoria and Fort Bend counties. He defeated Sam Plummer of Angleton in the Democratic primary by a margin of 8,881 to 4,928, and faced no opponent in the general election. Jim Hairgrove's time in the legislature was cut short, however, when he died of a heart attack in his hotel room in Austin on April 12, 1967, just three months into the regular session of the Sixtieth Texas Legislature. Despite her lack of experience in state politics, Sue Hairgrove filed with the local Democratic party as a candidate for her husband's vacant seat on April 20, 1967. Hairgrove told the Brazosport Facts that she agreed with her husband's legislative objectives, and she believed this election was her chance to fulfill them, though she said her campaign would not be "political" in nature. Four other candidates ran in the election, but Hairgrove won decisively with more than 61 percent of the total vote. After a special election called by Governor John Connally , Hairgrove was elected and sworn in by the speaker of the House on June 2. She was the only female member of the House. During her brief service she supported a bill to increase the state sales tax in some cases from 2 to 3 percent and a bill to prohibit the carrying of weapons in any premises selling alcoholic beverages, both of which were signed into law. She did not introduce any legislation during the session, but she was appointed to the Committee to Notify the Senate that the House was Ready to Adjourn. With gratitude for her service, the House honored her in a resolution which expressed the members' "appreciation to the Honorable Sue Hairgrove for her outstanding service during the session and for the wit, charm, and courtesy with which she has conducted herself as the only woman member of the House." On February 6, 1968, the Brazosport Facts announced that Hairgrove would not seek a seat in the Sixty-first Texas Legislature. Hairgrove told the paper that continuing a career in politics would require a significant amount of learning, something that she could not currently take on in addition to taking care of her family and owning and operating two radio stations. She went on to serve as the director of hospital development at the Community Hospital of Brazosport, and she served on the Brazosport Chamber of Commerce board of directors where she was the only female member and vice president of public affairs. In recognition of her service and achievements, the Brazosport Chamber of Commerce selected Hairgrove as woman of the year for 1969. Hairgrove also worked as a consultant to organizations that include: the Texas Gulf Coast Parks and Historical Restoration, the Family Service Center, and the Dow and Lake Jackson Beautification committees. She was a member of the Bay Area Heart Association, even taking on the role of county chairman for their "1969" event, and she served on the Tuberculosis Advisory Board for Brazoria

Tsha Handbook → · 3.6 mi away

Brannen, Bess Courtney

1945

Bess Courtney Brannen, educator and community leader, was born on February 18, 1905, at Trevat in Trinity County, Texas. Her father, Joseph Patrick Courtney, was born in Galveston to Miles Courtney, an Irish immigrant, and Martha Wood on January 26, 1877. The immigrant's son married into one of the oldest families in Texas. His bride and Bess's mother, Jennie Moren, was the great granddaughter of Martin Parmer (also spelled Palmer), a contemporary of Stephen F. Austin and a friend of Sam Houston . Parmer served as one of the authors and signers of the Texas Declaration of Independence . Bess's father worked for lumber companies in East Texas and went from stacking lumber to managing some of the largest stores in the area, then to purchasing agent for those stores in such cities as St. Louis and Chicago. Some of the companies were Lynch Davidson Lumber Company, William Cameron and Company at Carmona and Saron, Trinity County Lumber Company at Groveton, and Texas Long Leaf Lumber Company at New Willard. Bess, the youngest, and her siblings, Maurice Miles and Aileen, attended Alexander Collegiate Institute and College (later Lon Morris Academy and Lon Morris College ), a Methodist preparatory school and junior college in Jacksonville, Texas. She took courses in art, music, and drama, in addition to the core subjects, and finished her schooling there in the spring of 1924. Bess Courtney married Carl Andrew Brannen , a World War I veteran of Saron, Texas, on September 7, 1924. The couple had their first son, Carl Andrew "Andy" Brannen, Jr., on August 26, 1925, at Saron. Their second son, Joseph Patrick Brannen, was born on December 27, 1927, at New Willard, Texas. Bess and Andrew returned to Saron to help with aging family members and began their teaching careers at nearby Saglen, where Bess taught four years. They also continued their education . At Stephen F. Austin State Teachers College (later Stephen F. Austin State University ) Bess took courses in news writing, public speaking, and education, and Andrew received his B.S. in history in 1932. Their daughter, Willie Frances, was born on August 14, 1935, in Trinity, Texas. In 1934 Andrew became the county school superintendent of Trinity County, and Bess taught at Pennington for four years while continuing her education. Wherever she taught she produced programs in which the students performed. Bess finished her bachelor of science degree in education with a minor in fine arts, English, and social studies from Sam Houston State Teachers College (later Sam Houston State University ) on August 19, 1940. Soon after the United States declared war in December 1941, Andrew resigned as county superintendent and joined the U. S. Marine Corps in 1942. He finished his master's degree in history at Sam Houston State Teachers College in August 1942 before he left for USMC Officer Candidates School in Quantico, Virginia. Upon completion, he was assigned to the Marine Corps Air Station Eagle Mountain Lake, which was located northwest of Fort Worth. Bess moved with the two youngest children to Decatur, where she taught school and attended Decatur Baptist College (later Dallas Baptist University ). The oldest child, Andy, at the age of fourteen, had entered Texas Agricultural and Mechanical College (later Texas A&M University ) in the summer of 1940. In 1943 Bess and the family moved to Laguna Beach, California, where her husband, then a captain, was transferred to Marine Corps Air Station El Toro. Bess worked as a clerk at the local dry goods store as she did not have California teaching certification. Following in her father's footsteps, she soon became a buyer for the store. She also indulged in her love of art. During the family's brief stay in California, the Brannens' second oldest son, Joseph Patrick, finished high school, and their oldest son joined the U. S. Navy V-12 aviation cadet program and attended flight school and college at St. Mary's College in Moraga, California. In 1944 Bess

Tsha Handbook → · 3.6 mi away

Things to Do in Clute

nature 8.2 mi away
Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge

More than 40,000 acres of coastal marsh and prairie on the Central Flyway — one of the top birding spots in the U.S., with 320+ recorded species. Drive the…
day trip
SCUBA Diving in Mammoth Lake 🤿 - Sunken Astroworld Rides - Clute, TX

Featured on The Daytripper — a full-episode local travel guide.

Everything Near Clute

376 stories, landmarks & places within ~20 miles — the nearest 200 are listed here — the same local lore RoadyGoat plays as you drive through.

  • Clute, TX · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Clute, Texas, a town with roots stretching back to one of the very first plantations in Brazoria County. In 1824, Alexander Calvit, one of Stephen F. Austin's original colonists, and Jared E.…

  • The War Boom That Woke a Crossroads · 0.1 mi

    For more than a century Clute was nothing but plantation ground and a handful of houses. What changed it was a war and a metal. In the early 1940s the Dow Chemical Company built next door at Freeport, and on January 21,…

  • Willie Man-Chew and the Great Texas Mosquito Festival · 0.1 mi

    Clute decided long ago that if you can't beat the mosquitoes, you throw them a party. The Great Texas Mosquito Festival has run since 1981, every year on the last Thursday, Friday, and Saturday of July at Clute…

  • Selena's Brother Learned Music in a Clute Classroom · 0.1 mi

    Before he produced and co-wrote the hits that made his sister Selena a legend, A.B. Quintanilla was a kid in the band hall at Brazoswood High School in Clute. The Quintanilla family settled in next-door Lake Jackson,…

  • The Ice Age Giant Under the Sand Pit · 0.1 mi

    In November 2003 a backhoe operator working a sand pit near Brazoswood High School in Clute snagged something no one expected on the Texas coast: a pair of mammoth tusks buried in the ground. Word reached scientists…

  • How a Yankee With a White Beard Gave the Town Its Name · 0.1 mi

    The ground under Clute started as some of the richest cane land in Brazoria County. In 1824 Alexander Calvit, one of Stephen F. Austin's Old Three Hundred colonists, took title to land here, and the neighboring Eagle…

  • The Buccaneers Who Brought Home a State Title · 0.1 mi

    Brazoswood High School opened in Clute in September 1969, pulling together students from across the Brazosport area under the Buccaneers banner in Columbia blue and silver. It took the young school only five years to…

  • Pulling Warplanes from the Sea · 0.5 mi

    In 1933 Clute was ten people and two little businesses at a crossroads. What turned it into a city was an incredible feat of chemical engineering just down the road during World War Two. The Allies desperately needed…

  • The Great Texas Mosquito Festival · 0.5 mi

    If you want to understand Clute's sense of humor, you need to know about its biggest party: The Great Texas Mosquito Festival. Every July, this town throws a massive three-day festival to 'celebrate' its most annoying…

  • The WWII Boomtown · 0.5 mi

    Imagine this place in 1940: a crossroads with barely a dozen people, named for the Clute family who settled here after the Civil War. As late as 1933 Clute had two businesses and a population of ten. Then, on March 7,…

  • Clute, TX · 0.5 mi

    Clute is located in Brazoria County, Texas, with a total area of 5.6 square miles, of which 5.3 square miles is land and 0.3 square miles (5.14%) is water. In November 2003, a pair of mammoth tusks were found buried in…

  • The Ghosts of Eagle Island Plantation · 0.5 mi

    The streets and subdivisions of Clute sit on ground that used to be plantation land — the old Calvit and Eagle Island places. Eagle Island got its start in 1826, on five leagues that Jared Groce, the richest man in…

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  • The Clute Sign That Named a Restaurant Empire · 0.8 mi

    There are now El Toro Mexican Restaurants scattered across Texas, but the name was born right here in Clute. Eugene Ybarra opened his first place in La Porte in 1960 with twelve hundred dollars and a lien on his own…

  • Archer, Dr. Branch Tanner · 1.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site associated with Dr. Branch Tanner Archer, a key figure in early Texas. He served as President of the Consultation in 1835, a pivotal moment for the Republic. Archer then traveled to the…

  • Wharton, William Harris · 1.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're cruising through Clute, and right here is a marker for William Harris Wharton. He was a key player in the Texas Revolution, starting with the Battle of Velasco back in 1832. Wharton didn't just fight; he led. He…

  • Mammoth Lake · 1.4 mi · Historical Marker

    Mammoth Lake, formerly a cavernous sand pit, has had a vital influence on the development of clute and the surrounding area. In prehistoric times, nomadic Native American tribes lived in this region, hunting abundant…

  • The Volunteer Museum With a Dinosaur and a Sea of Shells · 1.4 mi

    Tucked into the Center for the Arts and Sciences at 400 College Boulevard, the Brazosport Museum of Natural Science is one of Clute's genuine surprises, and it's free to walk into. It holds one of the largest seashell…

  • Eagle Island Plantation · 1.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past what used to be Eagle Island Plantation, home to Sarah Ann Groce Wharton and William Harris Wharton. William was a big deal in early Texas history. He served in the Convention of Texas in 1832, then…

  • When the River Rose · 2.2 mi

    In late August 2017, Richwood faced its greatest modern crisis: Hurricane Harvey. The storm stalled over Southeast Texas, dumping unprecedented amounts of rain. Here, the danger wasn't just the rain from above, but the…

  • The Town That Chemistry Built · 2.2 mi

    As you travel through Richwood, you're in a place that owes its shape to a remarkable feat of chemical engineering a few miles away. During World War II the government needed magnesium in enormous quantity — a…

  • The Birth of a City · 2.2 mi

    The City of Richwood wasn't planned by a big developer or a corporation; it was willed into existence by its own residents. In the mid-1950s, this area was a patchwork of unincorporated subdivisions. People lived here,…

  • Before Corpus, Selena Sang in Lake Jackson · 2.3 mi

    Long before she became the Queen of Tejano music, Selena Quintanilla was a Lake Jackson kid. She was born April 16, 1971, to the Quintanilla family, who had settled in this Dow company town. In 1980 her father, Abraham…

  • Lake Jackson, TX · 2.3 mi

    In September 2020, Lake Jackson made headlines when brain-eating amoeba were detected in the city's drinking water supply, tragically resulting in the death of a 6-year-old boy. This incident led to the Brazosport Water…

  • Mining Metal Out of the Gulf of Mexico · 2.3 mi

    Just south of here, Dow Chemical pulled off something that still sounds like alchemy: it mined a metal straight out of seawater. Founder Herbert Dow had dreamed since the 1920s of using the ocean as a mine, and on…

  • The Dentist Who Built the First Plastic Airplane · 2.3 mi

    One of aviation's quiet revolutions was dreamed up by a Lake Jackson dentist. Leo Windecker ran a dental practice here in the 1950s, and many of his patients were Dow Chemical scientists working on fiberglass-reinforced…

  • The Town Dow Built From Scratch · 2.3 mi

    Almost everything around you was conjured out of coastal swamp in a hurry, for a war. In 1941 Dow Chemical's Texas Division manager A. P. Beutel decided the company needed a brand-new town to house workers for its…

  • This Way, That Way, and Any Way · 2.3 mi

    If your map app sounds confused, it isn't malfunctioning. Lake Jackson was laid out by architect Alden B. Dow, son of Dow Chemical's founder and a student of Frank Lloyd Wright, and he refused to draw the usual flat…

  • A Whole Town for the War Effort · 2.3 mi

    The neighborhoods around you went up at wartime speed for one reason: Dow Chemical needed somewhere to put thousands of workers running its new Freeport plants. When the United States entered World War II, Dow was…

  • The Summer the Tap Water Made National News · 2.3 mi

    In September 2020 this quiet chemical town suddenly led national newscasts for the worst possible reason. A 6-year-old Lake Jackson boy, Josiah McIntyre, died after an infection from Naegleria fowleri, the so-called…

  • Mount Zion Cemetery · 2.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Mount Zion Cemetery, established way back in 1939. It was later recognized as a Historic Texas Cemetery in 2011.

  • Magnesium from the Sea · 2.7 mi

    The entire existence of Lake Jackson is owed to a monumental feat of chemical engineering driven by World War II. In 1940, the British were desperate for magnesium, a metal lighter than aluminum, to build aircraft. The…

  • The City of Enchantment · 2.7 mi

    As you navigate Lake Jackson, you might notice something unusual: the streets curve and wind, and you'll rarely find a simple four-way stop. This is no accident. It's the deliberate work of architect Alden B. Dow, who…

  • The Ghosts of the Sugar Mill · 2.7 mi

    Before Lake Jackson was a city it was a kingdom of sugar. In the 1840s this land was Abner Jackson's plantation, one of three he built, and the sugar and molasses made here helped make him one of the wealthiest men in…

  • Selena's Suburban Life · 2.7 mi

    Lake Jackson is where the Queen of Tejano started. Selena Quintanilla was born here on April 16, 1971, and spent her childhood in this town, on a street named for a flower the way so many streets here are. Her father,…

  • Nolan Ryan Expressway: Who It's Named For · 2.8 mi

    The Nolan Ryan Expressway is named after Nolan Ryan, a Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher who grew up in Alvin, Texas. The highway carries this name from Freeport to the Harris-Brazoria county line in recognition of the…

  • Nolan Ryan Expressway · 2.8 mi · Historical Marker

    Honors Nolan Ryan, 8x MLB All-Star, 7-time no-hit pitcher, all-time strikeout leader (5,714). Born Refugio, raised Alvin. Honorary segment on SH-288 in Brazoria County.

  • Brazos Canal · 3.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of a massive, failed 19th-century infrastructure project. In 1841, local landowners formed the Brazos Canal Company, aiming to connect inland plantations to the Gulf. Construction started in…

  • The Mod Little Building That Ran the Whole Town · 3.2 mi

    Tucked into Carriage Square at 101 South Parking Place is a low, angular building that looks like nothing else downtown, and that is the point. Architect Alden B. Dow designed it in 1940 as his on-site office while he…

  • The Town's Story Under One Roof · 3.3 mi

    If you want the whole arc of this place in one stop, it is at 249 Circle Way. The Lake Jackson Historical Museum, run by the Lake Jackson Historical Association, walks you from the Karankawa hunters who roamed this…

  • Breakfast Tacos on a Street Called That Way · 3.3 mi

    The address alone is worth the trip: Nena's Restaurant sits at 104 That Way, on one of Lake Jackson's famously named streets, so you can honestly tell someone the best breakfast taco in town is over That Way. The place…

  • The Doctor Who Delivered Selena Later Ran for President · 3.4 mi

    Here is a only-in-Lake-Jackson collision of fame. The obstetrician who delivered Selena Quintanilla in 1971 was a young local OB-GYN named Ron Paul, whose practice sat at 104 Circle Way in town. He spent years in…

  • Velasco Cemetery · 3.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Velasco Cemetery, a place dedicated way back in 1891. Brazos Investment Company set aside these 2.5 acres to be the only public burial ground in the county. The deed said plots were to be used…

  • Phair Cemetery · 3.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Phair Cemetery, a quiet resting place for some of Brazoria County's earliest settlers. The land itself was originally granted by Mexico to Stephen F. Austin. The first burial here was in 1853,…

  • Quintanilla Perez, Selena [Selena] · 3.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Singer Selena Quintanilla Perez, known simply as Selena, the daughter of Abraham and Marcella (Perez) Quintanilla, Jr., was born on April 16, 1971, in Lake Jackson, Texas. She married Christopher Perez, guitarist and…

  • Muzzy, Mary Sue Blair Hairgrove · 3.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Mary Sue Blair Hairgrove Muzzy, Texas state legislator, daughter of John E. Blair and Mable Sue (Gibbs) Blair, was born in Argyle, Texas, on October 1, 1922. The youngest of four children, she grew up on her family's…

  • Brannen, Bess Courtney · 3.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Bess Courtney Brannen, educator and community leader, was born on February 18, 1905, at Trevat in Trinity County, Texas. Her father, Joseph Patrick Courtney, was born in Galveston to Miles Courtney, an Irish immigrant,…

  • Jackson, Abner · 3.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Brazoria County, not far from the modern town of Lake Jackson. Right here, in the mid-1800s, stood Retrieve Plantation, owned by Abner Jackson. By 1860, Jackson was the second-largest slaveholder…

  • Lake Jackson, TX · 3.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Lake Jackson, a community with a fascinating rebirth story. The land you see was once the site of Abner Jackson's plantation, worked by as many as eighty-two slaves in the mid-1800s. After the…

  • Velasco Lodge No. 757, A. F. & A. M. · 3.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Velasco Lodge, a Masonic lodge that's been part of Brazoria County history for over a century. Chartered on December 8, 1893, the lodge's first home near the Brazos River was destroyed by…

  • Site of Crosby's Landing · 3.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Crosby's Landing, a crucial hub for early Texas commerce. Thomas Phillip Crosby arrived from New York in 1830, recognizing the need for a vital landing on the Brazos River. After being…

  • Where the Texas Revolution Ended · 4.2 mi

    Right here, in what was the small port of Velasco, the Texas Revolution came to an end. In May 1836, just weeks after his defeat at San Jacinto, Mexican General Santa Anna was brought here as a prisoner. Velasco was…

  • Engineering Metal from Seawater · 4.2 mi

    The massive Dow complex you see is home to a world-changing engineering feat. In 1940, Dow's challenge was to extract magnesium, which exists in seawater at a tiny concentration of just 1,300 parts per million. Under…

  • The Metal from the Sea that Helped Win the War · 4.2 mi

    Look toward the sprawling Dow chemical complex. In 1940, with war raging in Europe, that site became a national priority. The United States desperately needed magnesium, a lightweight metal essential for building…

  • America's Secret Oil Barrel · 4.2 mi

    Just a few miles from here is a place of immense national importance you can't see: the Bryan Mound Strategic Petroleum Reserve. This site is a massive underground salt dome, the same one that gave Freeport its start…

  • Stringfellow Ranch · 4.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the land that was once the Stringfellow Ranch, a massive 20,000-acre spread right here in southern Brazoria County. Robert Stringfellow started working cattle at just 14 years old, back in 1880. He…

  • Freeport, TX · 4.2 mi

    Freeport's character is definitely shaped by its relationship to the sea, but also by the generations of folks who came here looking for opportunity. While it was officially established fairly recently, the area had…

  • The Town That Dow Built · 4.3 mi

    Before 1940, the area around Oyster Creek was quiet, rural and agricultural -- cattle country that had turned into cotton and sugar plantations. Then Dow Chemical arrived, and everything changed. Needing magnesium for…

  • Velasco · 4.3 mi · Historical Marker

    Landing place of the "Lively" first vessel bringing immigrants to Austin's colony in 1821. There the Battle of Velasco, between Texas colonists and Mexican troops, was fought June 26, 1832. A treaty of peace between…

  • The Secret Highway in the Water · 4.3 mi

    Right now, you’re crossing a landscape shaped by a massive, hidden piece of engineering. Nearby, Oyster Creek flows into a man-made channel called the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway. It’s essentially a protected highway for…

  • Colonel Robert M. Coleman · 4.6 mi · Historical Marker

    Erected by the State of Texas In Memory of Colonel Robert M. Coleman Signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence Aide-de-camp to General Sam Houston at San Jacinto Colonel of the first regiment of Texas Rangers Born…

  • Lemský, Frederick · 4.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Brazoria County, near where Oyster Creek is today. Right here, back in 1836, a European musician named Frederick Lemský joined the Texas army. He's said to have played his flute, a tune called…

  • Oyster Creek, TX · 4.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Brazoria County, near Oyster Creek. This community owes its start to a pair of brothers, known only as Horn and Horn. Back in the 1890s, they formed a company to sell lots in the prairie along…

  • Velasco · 4.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Velasco, one of the oldest towns in Texas. Imagine this place back in the early 1800s: a busy port of entry, welcoming over 25,000 settlers. But Velasco is also famous for something else: the very…

  • Velasco Methodist Church · 4.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Brazoria County, and just ahead is the site of the Velasco Methodist Church. Methodist circuit riders were holding services here way back in the 1830s. After the original town of Velasco was wiped…

  • The Cornerback the Exporters Sent to the NFL · 4.9 mi

    At Brazosport High School on West 2nd Street, the teams play as the Exporters, a nickname only a port-and-chemical town would pick, and one of the best athletes ever to wear it was Raymond Waddy Jr. Born in Freeport in…

  • Freeport Ate One of the Oldest Towns in Texas · 5.0 mi

    Drive the east side of Freeport and you are inside what was once Velasco, a place far older and once far more important than the town that absorbed it. Mexico set up a customs port at Velasco in 1831, and more than…

  • Cannan, William Jarvis · 5.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of William Jarvis Cannan's Texas story. Born in South Carolina in 1808, he arrived in Texas in 1835, just in time to join the army fighting for independence. Cannan was there for the…

  • Joseph H. Hawkins · 5.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through the Lake Jackson area, and you're passing the site of a crucial partnership that helped launch Texas. Joseph H. Hawkins, a lawyer and former congressman from Kentucky, became friends with a broke…

  • R. O'Hara Lanier School · 5.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past R. O'Hara Lanier School. In 1947, the various African American communities of the recently organized Brazosport Independent School District were consolidated. At Velasco, children from Freeport,…

  • The Place Where Texas's Father Died · 5.2 mi

    Right here at Jones Creek was the one place Stephen F. Austin, the Father of Texas, ever called home. It wasn't his house. It was his sister's. Peach Point Plantation, between Jones Creek and the Brazos, belonged to…

  • The Westminster Abbey of Texas · 5.2 mi

    You're very close to a small, unassuming cemetery that holds more Texas history per acre than almost anywhere in the state. It's the Gulf Prairie Cemetery, the burying ground of Peach Point Plantation, in use since…

  • The Hidden Salt Dome Powering an Industry · 5.2 mi

    Beneath the flat landscape near Jones Creek lies a geological feature that quietly fuels the whole region: the Stratton Ridge Salt Dome. Picture a column of solid salt, miles deep and about a mile across, that has…

  • Jones Creek, TX · 5.2 mi

    Jones Creek, Texas, holds a significant place in the history of the Lone Star State. It was the first location in Texas where Stephen F. Austin, known as the Father of Texas, settled. His original grave can be found in…

  • Schuster Home · 5.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Schuster Home in Freeport, a place that's stood for over a century! Built in 1917 by George Schuster's sons, this two-story cypress wood house was a real showstopper for its time. Notice those…

  • One-Eighth Mile South to Peach Point · 5.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Peach Point, home of Emily M. Perry. She was the only sister of Stephen F. Austin, the Father of Texas. After San Felipe burned in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1836</say-as>, Austin himself…

  • Battle of Jones Creek · 5.5 mi

    You're passing Jones Creek in southern Brazoria County, named for a bloody fight that played out right here in 1824. The Karankawa ruled this coast — tall, tattooed, and feared by the colonists for a reputation, handed…

  • Bryan, Major Guy M. · 5.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the birthplace of Major Guy M. Bryan, a man who truly saw Texas history unfold. Born in Missouri in 1821, he rode a mule to Texas in 1831 to join his uncle, Stephen F. Austin. Bryan fought as a…

  • Brown, Major Reuben R. · 5.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the former home of Major Reuben R. Brown, a man who saw action in the Texas War for Independence. In January of 1836, Brown joined the Matamoros Expedition, and was part of the detachment that…

  • William Joel Bryan · 5.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the birthplace of William Joel Bryan, a man whose family tree branches out to touch the very roots of Texas. He was the grandson of Moses Austin, the visionary who first dreamed of an Anglo-American…

  • Major James Peckham Caldwell · 5.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of a man who saw Texas independence from two key battles. Major James Peckham Caldwell was wounded fighting at the Battle of Velasco back in 1832. Then, four years later, while Texas won its…

  • Henry William Munson · 5.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site where Henry William Munson lived, a heroic early Texas soldier. Born in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1793</say-as>, Munson fought in the Battle of the Medina near San Antonio in…

  • James Franklin Perry · 5.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Jones Creek, near where James Franklin Perry established his farm and mercantile business. Born in Pennsylvania in 1790, Perry moved to Texas in 1831 at the urging of his brother-in-law, Stephen…

  • Willed to Austin's sister Emily · 5.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Durazno Plantation. Originally a part of Stephen F. Austin's 1828 Mexican land grant, Durazno (Spanish for "peach") plantation was willed by Austin to his sister, Emily Austin Bryan Perry, upon his…

  • Durazno Plantation · 5.6 mi · Historical Marker

    Originally a part of Stephen F. Austin's 1828 Mexican land grant, Durazno (Spanish for "peach") plantation was willed by Austin to his sister, Emily Austin Bryan Perry, upon his death in December 1836. The property was…

  • Gulf Shrimp on the Bank of the Brazos · 5.6 mi

    For a town this tied to the water, the right place to eat is one that actually sits on it. On The River opened in 1988 at 919 West 2nd Street, perched right on the bank of the Brazos River just minutes from where it…

  • Gulf Prairie Cemetery · 5.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Gulf Prairie Cemetery, a pioneer burial ground originally part of Peach Point Plantation. It's been used by descendants of Stephen F. Austin's sister, Emily Austin Bryan Perry, since 1829. And get…

  • Durazno Plantation · 5.7 mi · Scraped Hmdb

    This unassuming land once played a vital role in supplying the US Army during a pivotal moment in American history. In 1846, the Durazno Plantation, owned by Judge Robert H. Williams, became a crucial supply depot for…

  • The Treaties of Velasco — Where Texas Independence Was (Almost) Settled · 5.8 mi · Historical Account

    You're near the mouth of the Brazos River — and near where, in May of 1836, a deal was struck that was supposed to end the fight for Texas forever. It didn't. Two weeks after the Battle of San Jacinto, Texas Interim…

  • The Town a Sulphur Company Built · 6.1 mi

    Freeport is one of the few American towns that takes its name not from a founder or a feature, but from a corporation. In 1912 New York bankers Eric P. and Swen A. Swenson, both Texas-born, organized the Freeport…

  • The Engineers Who Gave a River Two Mouths · 6.1 mi

    For all its size, the Brazos River was a terrible neighbor to a port town. Its mouth between Surfside and Quintana was choked by a shifting sandbar that ran as shallow as four feet, and every flood dumped fresh silt…

  • When Dow Came to Drink the Gulf · 6.1 mi

    The sulfur boom had already faded when the company that truly remade Freeport showed up. In 1939 Dow Chemical began building on the marsh and beach southeast of town, drawn by an unglamorous resource almost nobody else…

  • The Phantom Fiddler at the River's Mouth · 6.1 mi

    Southwest of Freeport, where the San Bernard River slips quietly into the Gulf in southern Brazoria County, locals tell one of the coast's older ghost stories. As the legend goes, back in the 1820s a pair of fishermen…

  • The Compact Killer of August 1932 · 6.1 mi

    Freeport sits low and exposed where the Brazos meets the Gulf, and on August 14, 1932, the ocean reminded the young town exactly what that means. A small but ferociously intense hurricane had spun up in the Gulf only…

  • The Whole Story Under One Roof Downtown · 6.1 mi

    If you want to make sense of how a sulfur town, a chemical giant, an old Texas-independence port, and a shrimp fleet all ended up sharing one small city, the Freeport Historical Museum and Visitor Center is the place to…

  • Freeport National bank · 6.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Freeport, a city built on sulfur and vision. Back in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1912</say-as>, the Freeport Sulphur Company incorporated, aiming to create a bustling port. They founded…

  • Goode, James Douglas [Jim] · 6.2 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through the Upper Gulf Coast, maybe near Houston, and you might just be hungry for some real Texas barbecue. Well, right here, in 1977, Jim Goode was looking for a new opportunity. He saw a struggling…

  • Bryan Mound · 6.2 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving near Freeport, Texas, and right here is Bryan Mound. In the early 1900s, a young engineer named Bernard Baruch discovered a massive salt dome right on the coast, loaded with sulfur. He tried to get J.P.…

  • Jones, Charles Adam · 6.2 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving past Freeport, a town that owes its existence to Charles Adam Jones. After a career in newspapers and packing plants, Jones came to this spot in 1913. He was tasked with building a new town and a massive…

  • Magnesium Industry · 6.2 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Right here in Texas, you're driving through a state that became a powerhouse in the magnesium industry, especially during World War II. Starting in 1941, the Dow Chemical plant at Freeport began pulling magnesium…

  • Brazosport, TX · 6.2 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Brazosport, a massive industrial and port area where the Brazos River meets the Gulf. While nautical charts as far back as the 1700s may have used the name, this community really took off after…

  • Freeport, TX (Brazoria County) · 6.2 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving along the Texas coast, heading towards the Gulf. Right here is Freeport, a deepwater port officially founded in November of <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1912</say-as>. It sprang up around the…

  • Stringfellow, Nannie Maddox · 6.2 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Brazoria County, and right here, you're passing through the territory of Nannie Maddox Stringfellow, a woman who built an empire from scratch. After a devastating hurricane ruined her father's…

  • Old Oakland Plantation · 6.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Old Oakland Plantation, founded back in 1828. Henry Munson bought this land from none other than Stephen F. Austin himself, who lived right next door at Peach Point Plantation. Munson…

  • Ellerslie Plantation · 7.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Ellerslie Plantation, once a powerhouse of Brazoria County sugar production. John Greenville McNeel, one of Stephen F. Austin's 'Old Three Hundred,' established this massive operation…

  • Bryan Mound · 7.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Bryan Mound, a place that literally fueled early 20th-century industry in Texas. Back in the first decade of the 1900s, engineers found massive sulfur deposits right here. This discovery led to the…

  • The Sulphur Dome That Became a National Oil Vault · 7.7 mi

    The salt dome that gave Freeport its start has had a strange second life. Bryan Mound, the low rise a couple of miles south of town, was mined dry of sulfur by 1935 and could have been forgotten. Instead, in 1977 the…

  • The Texas Division and the Rapido River · 7.8 mi

    State Highway Thirty Six and U S Highway One Ninety both carry the name Thirty Sixth Division Memorial Highway. The Thirty Sixth Infantry Division was called the Texas Division, because when it entered federal service…

  • Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge · 8.2 mi

    The Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge spreads across more than forty thousand acres of coastal prairie, salt marsh, and freshwater wetland where the Texas mainland meets the Gulf, in Brazoria County south of Lake…

  • Visiting Brazoria Refuge — What to Know · 8.2 mi

    A few things worth knowing before you pull into the Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge. First, the entrance: aim for the automatic gate at twenty twenty-two County Road two twenty-seven, off Farm-to-Market five…

  • The Lively · 8.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the Lively, the very first ship to bring emigrants to Stephen F. Austin's colony. That happened way back on December 23rd, 1821. Just a little over ten years later, this spot was the…

  • Quintana Cemetery · 8.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Quintana, one of the last physical reminders of an early Texas seaport. Just across that storm levee lies the Quintana Cemetery. It started as a family burial ground for Henry and Josephine Seaburn,…

  • Quintana · 8.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Quintana, a place with a history stretching back to at least 1532. Imagine this: a thriving village, then a crucial port of entry for the Republic of Texas, and a strategic point during the Civil…

  • Allen Place · 8.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're cruising past Allen Place, built in 1883 by the Jarvis family as a boarding house in Old Quintana. This place has seen some weather, surviving major Gulf storms, including Hurricane Carla in 1961. Today, it's…

  • Velasco · 8.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Velasco, the site of the very first battle of the Texas Revolution! Back on June 26, 1832, Texans under John Austin and Henry Smith were trying to move cannon up the Brazos River to Anahuac. But…

  • Velasco · 8.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Velasco, a vital Texas port during the Civil War. Imagine this: dark nights, the faint glow of boilers burning hard coal to minimize smoke. Blockade runners, carrying precious cotton…

  • The River That Moved · 8.6 mi

    As you look at the water here at Quintana, you're seeing only half the story. This was once the mouth of the Brazos River, but in 1929 engineers moved the entire river. The problem was that the natural mouth was…

  • The International Port of the Texas Republic · 8.6 mi

    It’s hard to imagine now, but in the late 1830s, this quiet spot was an international port and a cornerstone of the new Republic of Texas. After winning independence from Mexico, Texas was its own country, and Quintana…

  • The Hurricane That Sealed Quintana's Fate · 8.6 mi

    By the end of the 1800s, the old port of Quintana was already in decline. But the final, devastating blow came on September 8th, 1900. The same monster hurricane that famously destroyed Galveston swept over this…

  • Gulf Intracoastal Waterway · 8.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're cruising past a true Texas giant right now – the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway! This isn't just a ditch; it's America's most valuable waterway, stretching over a thousand miles from Brownsville all the way to…

  • Duval, Burr H. · 8.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through what is now Duval County, Texas, and right here, Burr H. Duval and his Kentucky Mustangs were part of the doomed Goliad Campaign. Born in Kentucky in 1809, Duval came to Texas to fight for…

  • McKinney, Thomas Freeman · 8.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving past the mouth of the Brazos River, near Quintana. Back in 1835, Thomas Freeman McKinney and his partner, Samuel May Williams, developed this very spot. Their firm, McKinney and Williams, was a…

  • The Confederate Fort at the River's Mouth · 8.6 mi

    During the Civil War this coastline became a strategic battleground. The Union navy blockaded the whole Southern coast to cut off Confederate supplies, and the mouth of the Brazos River was a key target. The…

  • Acadia, Sinking Site of the Blockade Runner · 8.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the sinking site of the blockade runner Acadia. This sidewheel steamer, owned by Canadians, set out on her maiden voyage in December of 1864, loaded with food, hardware, and clothing. Her mission: to…

  • Quintana, TX · 8.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving near the mouth of the Brazos River, right where Quintana sits. Believed to be named for a Mexican general, this spot was a major seaport for Austin's colony back in the 1820s. It was a bustling place,…

  • Perry, Stephen Samuel · 8.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Brazoria County, not far from the coast, and right here is where Stephen Samuel Perry managed Peach Point Plantation. He inherited this sugar plantation from his family, including his uncle,…

  • Bryan, Lewis Randolph, Jr. · 8.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving near Quintana, Texas, the birthplace of Lewis Randolph Bryan, Jr. Born in 1892, Bryan's life was shaped by Texas history, a passion he inherited as a great-grandson of Emily Austin Perry, Stephen F.…

  • The First Shot of the Texas Revolution? · 8.7 mi

    Right here in what's now a quiet beach town, one of the first fights of the Texas Revolution took place. In June of 1832, a group of Texan colonists loaded a cannon onto a vessel up at Brazoria and started down the…

  • Capital of a Republic · 8.7 mi

    Imagine a place important enough that a brand-new nation runs its government out of it. For a brief, critical stretch, this was that place. After the Texas army captured Mexican General Santa Anna at the Battle of San…

  • How to Move a River · 8.7 mi

    As you drive through Surfside, you might cross a bridge over a calm body of water called the 'Old Brazos River.' But why 'Old'? Because in 1929, engineers pulled off something remarkable: they moved the mouth of the…

  • The Storm That Erased a Town · 8.7 mi

    You've probably heard of the Great Galveston Hurricane of 1900, the deadliest natural disaster in U.S. history. But the storm that really shaped this exact spot came a quarter-century earlier. The town that once stood…

  • Snow, Sheriff Joe H. · 8.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the area where Sheriff Joe H. Snow lived and served. Born in West Columbia in 1872, Snow began his public service as a justice of the peace for over a decade. He then moved to law enforcement,…

  • Surfside Beach, TX · 8.7 mi

    Surfside Beach, Texas, isn't exactly known as a celebrity hotbed. It's more the kind of place where the biggest excitement is a good fishing report or a sea turtle nesting. But that doesn't mean notable folks haven't…

  • A 76-Foot Father of Texas · 9.1 mi

    Drive Highway 288 near Angleton and you can't miss him: a towering white figure of Stephen F. Austin, the empresario who brought the first Anglo colonists to this very county in the 1820s, now standing guard over the…

  • First Presbyterian Church of Angleton · 9.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Angleton's First Presbyterian Church, a story of faith and community resilience. Organized in 1896 with just fifteen members, this congregation faced hardship. The devastating 1900 storm…

  • Cast Iron and Live Music Downtown · 9.8 mi

    If you want a meal in old downtown Angleton rather than out on the highway strip, The Dirty South at 116 North Velasco Street is the move. It occupies one of the historic brick storefronts on the original main drag, the…

  • The Records That Moved by Lantern Light · 10.0 mi

    Becoming a county seat is rarely peaceful, and Angleton's promotion in 1896 was downright bitter. The honor had long belonged to the older town of Brazoria, and the fight over moving it inland to the young railroad town…

  • Long, Jane · 10.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Brazoria, and right here is where Jane Long ran a legendary boarding house and tavern. Born in Maryland in 1798, she moved to Texas and opened this popular spot in 1832. It wasn't just a place to…

  • Sweeny Home · 10.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Sweeny Home in Angleton. This Victorian house, built in 1896, has a unique connection to the county's history. Its owner, Rees P. Sweeny, was the Brazoria County tax collector during a major…

  • Angleton Independent School District · 10.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Angleton, where education has always been a priority. Back in 1892, two residents donated land for the very first school. Citizens pitched in two hundred dollars to build a simple frame structure,…

  • First Baptist Church of Angleton · 10.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Angleton, and right here is the site of the First Baptist Church. It got its start way back in 1896, with Joseph Matthew Kailin leading the congregation. But just four years later, a massive…

  • The Courthouse That Became a Museum · 10.1 mi

    At 100 East Cedar Street stands the old red-brick building that ran Brazoria County for half a century. Accepted as finished in 1897, it was designed by Houston architect Eugene T. Heiner, who built courthouses all over…

  • The Town That Helped Build the Pacemaker · 10.1 mi

    This unassuming county seat once sat at the center of America's heart-implant industry. In 1973 a former Medtronic salesman named Albert Beutel founded Intermedics down the road in Freeport, and the company's reach soon…

  • Bailey, James Briton · 10.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through what was once Bailey's Prairie, near the Brazos River. Right here lived James Britton Bailey, one of Stephen F. Austin's original colonists. Bailey had a reputation that preceded him, possibly…

  • Brigham, Asa · 10.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through what was once the heart of early Texas, right here in Brazoria County. Asa Brigham, a name you might not know, but he was a foundational figure. He arrived in Texas in 1830, and by 1836, he was a…

  • Brown, Reuben Robinson · 10.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Texas, maybe near the coast, and you're passing through a story of survival from the Texas Revolution. Reuben Robinson Brown arrived in Texas in November 1835, just in time to join the Matamoros…

  • Dodson, Sarah Randolph Bradley · 10.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through what was once Harrisburg, a place that saw a pivotal moment in Texas history. Back in 1835, Sarah Dodson, a resident here, was asked to make a flag for a volunteer company preparing to resist the…

  • Ellersly Plantation · 10.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Brazoria County, not far from the Gulf Coast, and you're passing through the echoes of Ellersly Plantation. Established in 1824 by John Greenville McNeel, this was more than just a farm; it was a…

  • Herzog, Sofie Dalia · 10.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Brazoria County, Texas, home to Dr. Sofie Herzog, a woman who defied expectations. Born in Austria, she followed her husband to America and eventually to this very town. At first, the locals were…

  • Johnston, Albert Sidney · 10.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through the heart of Texas, a land shaped by conflict and courage. Right here, in what is now Brazoria County, Albert Sidney Johnston made his home. Born in Kentucky, Johnston came to Texas in 1836,…

  • Logan, Greenbury · 10.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through what is now Brazoria County, a place that was once home to Greenbury Logan. Born into slavery in Kentucky around 1798, Logan was freed and came to Texas in 1831. He was a free Black man who became…

  • Mills, David Graham · 10.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Brazoria County, Texas, and right here, you might have passed the former site of Low Wood Plantation. This was the heart of David Graham Mills' empire. In 1850, Mills and his brother Robert were…

  • Mills, Robert · 10.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Brazoria County, and right here, Robert Mills built an empire from scratch. He arrived in Texas in 1830, joining his brother in a trading post. Soon, their burro trains and ships were pushing…

  • Mitchell, Asa · 10.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through what was once the heart of early Texas settlement, near the mouth of the Brazos River. Right here, Asa Mitchell, one of Stephen F. Austin's 'Old Three Hundred,' arrived in 1822. He wasn't just a…

  • Pease, Elisha Marshall · 10.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through what was once the Municipality of Mina, but Elisha Marshall Pease found his destiny further south, right here in Brazoria. He arrived in Texas in 1835, and by the very next year, he was helping to…

  • Phelps, James Aeneas E. · 10.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Brazoria County, and right here is the site of Orozimbo Plantation, home to Dr. James Aeneas E. Phelps. Phelps was one of Stephen F. Austin's original colonists, arriving in Texas in 1822. He…

  • Russell, William Jarvis · 10.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through what was once Velasco, a key flashpoint before Texas independence. Right here, on June 26, 1832, William Jarvis Russell, commander of the schooner Brazoria, is said to have fired the very first…

  • Smith, Henry · 10.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through what was once the heart of early Texas politics, right here in what is now Brazoria County. And you're passing through the territory of Henry Smith, a man who became known as the first American…

  • Dr. Sofie Deligath Herzog · 10.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Brazoria area, home to Dr. Sofie Deligath Herzog, an Austrian immigrant who became a pioneering surgeon in early 20th-century Texas. Despite limited opportunities for women, she excelled,…

  • Alsbury, Horace Arlington · 10.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Horace (Horatio, Horacio) Arlington (Alex, Alexander) Alsbury (Alsberry, Allsbury; variant spellings occur in the surname of related Alsburys), possibly a native of Hopkinsville, Kentucky, came to Texas as one of…

  • San Luis, TX · 10.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    San Luis was on what is now Farm Road 257 across San Luis Pass from the west end of Galveston Island and twelve miles east of Surfside in southeastern Brazoria County. The area, San Luis Island, was still a true island…

  • Velasco, TX · 10.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Old Velasco, (encompassed by present-day Surfside Beach) on the east side of the Brazos River sixteen miles south of Angleton and near the Gulf of Mexico in southeastern Brazoria County, was founded in 1831. Ten years…

  • Named for a Railroad Man's Wife · 10.1 mi

    The town you're rolling into owes both its name and its existence to a railroad. In 1890, Lewis R. Bryan Sr. and Faustino Kiber laid out a townsite near the geographic center of Brazoria County, betting that steel rails…

  • Angleton's Pro Football Hall of Famer · 10.1 mi

    Angleton can claim a Pro Football Hall of Famer as a native son. Emmitt Thomas was born here on June 3, 1943, and took an unlikely road to the top. He went undrafted out of tiny Bishop College in Dallas, signed with the…

  • The Godfather of Nu Metal Was Born Here · 10.1 mi

    One of the most influential rock producers of the 1990s started life in Angleton. Ross Robinson was born here on February 13, 1967, before his family's path led him to California and a career in heavy music. He cut his…

  • The High School That Sent Stars Up the Road · 10.1 mi

    Angleton High School has quietly produced an outsized share of big-time athletes. Quentin Jammer, a do-everything two-way star here in the 1990s, made the 1997 Texas high-school all-star team alongside future NFL…

  • The Biggest County Fair in Texas · 10.1 mi

    Every October, Angleton more than doubles in spirit when the Brazoria County Fair rolls in, billed as the largest county fair in Texas. It grew out of humble beginnings. In 1938 the Angleton Jaycees took over running…

  • Brazoria Townsite · 10.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Brazoria, a town that was once the bustling port and social heart of Stephen F. Austin's colony. Established in 1828 by John Austin, this place saw the legendary Jane Long, widow of Dr.…

  • Acadia · 10.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're cruising along the Texas coast, and right here, ten miles northeast of the Brazos River mouth, lies the watery grave of a Civil War blockade runner. The Acadia, built extra large and fast in 1864 for this…

  • Adriance, John · 10.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Brazoria County, near the town of Columbia, where John Adriance made his mark. Arriving in Texas in 1835, he first helped protect fleeing Texans during the Runaway Scrape and even guarded Santa…

  • Anthony, Daniel W. · 10.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through what is now Fort Bend County, near the San Bernard River, but back in 1832, this was the wild frontier. Daniel W. Anthony, a newspaperman and attorney, arrived in Texas and immediately jumped into…

  • Archer, Branch Tanner · 10.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through what is now Brazoria County, Texas, a place that was once home to Branch Tanner Archer. He was a doctor, a legislator in Virginia, and even killed a man in a duel in 1828. But Archer's real story…

  • Brazoria County · 10.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Brazoria County, right where Texas history really got its start. Back in 1821, Stephen F. Austin chose this very area for his ambitious colonization project. By 1824, eighty-nine of his original…

  • Brown, Henry Stevenson · 10.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through what is now Brazoria County, perhaps near Columbia, where Henry Stevenson Brown met his end in 1834. But before that, he was a key player in early Texas conflicts. Arriving in 1824, he quickly got…

  • Bryan, Guy Morrison · 10.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Brazoria County, and right here is where a young courier rode to deliver one of the most famous letters in Texas history. It was March of 1836, and the Alamo had fallen. Sixteen-year-old Guy…

  • Cloud, John Wurts, Sr. · 10.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Brazoria County, not far from where John Wurts Cloud, Sr. arrived in the Austin colony before 1831. Though ordained as an Episcopal priest, he didn't publicly practice his ministry here. Instead,…

  • Cone, Horace · 10.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through what was once Columbia, Texas, a town that dreamed of reaching the Pacific. Horace Cone, a lawyer and legislator, was deeply involved in an ambitious plan in the early 1880s to build a railroad…

  • Eagle Island Plantation · 10.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Brazoria County, not far from the Gulf. Right here, back in 1826, Sarah Ann Groce and her husband William Harris Wharton established Eagle Island Plantation. They built it up to cover 16,000 acres…

  • Edwards, Monroe · 10.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through what was once Brazoria County, near Chenango, where Monroe Edwards built his fortune on a dark chapter of Texas history: slave smuggling. Born in Kentucky around 1808, Edwards arrived in Texas in…

  • Franklin, Benjamin Cromwell · 10.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through what was once the Republic of Texas, a time of revolution and nation-building. Right here, Benjamin Cromwell Franklin was making history. Arriving in Velasco in 1835, he quickly joined the fight…

  • Gray, Franklin C. · 10.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Brazoria, a town that was once the epicenter of Texas's nascent newspaper scene. Right here, in 1834, Franklin C. Gray launched the Texas Republican. For over a year, until October 10, 1835, it…

  • Green, Thomas Jefferson · 10.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through what was once Velasco, a town that played a key role in the Texas Revolution. Right here, in 1836, Thomas Jefferson Green, a veteran of North Carolina and Florida politics, arrived with a Texas…

  • Hill, William Green · 10.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Brazoria County, the heart of early Texas. Right here, William Green Hill, known as Colonel Hill, was more than just a soldier in the Texas Revolution. He was the very first signer of the Goliad…

  • Houston Tap and Brazoria Railway · 10.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through what was once the heart of Texas's sugar country, and right here is where the Houston Tap and Brazoria Railway laid its tracks. Chartered in 1856, this line, nicknamed the 'Sugar Road,' was built…

  • Jack, William Houston · 10.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Brazoria County, right where William Houston Jack made his mark during the Texas Revolution. In 1832, Jack became a leader against Mexican authority, helping draft the famous Turtle Bayou…

  • Jordan, Levi · 10.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Brazoria County, not far from the San Bernard River. Right here, Levi Jordan established what many historians consider the first true sugar mill in Texas. Arriving in 1848, Jordan brought his…

  • McNeel, John Greenville · 10.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Brazoria County, the heart of Texas's early sugar country. Right here, John Greenville McNeel arrived with Stephen F. Austin's first colonists back in 1822. He fought in the battle of Velasco and…

  • McNeel, John Shelby · 10.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Brazoria County, and right here is the land once owned by John Shelby McNeel. He was one of Stephen F. Austin's original colonists, arriving in Texas back in 1822. By 1830, his plantation, China…

  • McNeel, Pleasant D. · 10.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Brazoria County, and right here is the land where Pleasant D. McNeel made his mark. He arrived in Texas around 1822, becoming one of Stephen F. Austin's original colonists. By 1824, he'd secured a…

  • McNeel, Sterling · 10.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Brazoria County, the heart of Texas's early sugar country. Right here, Sterling McNeel arrived with Stephen F. Austin's first colonists back in 1822. He wasn't just a planter; McNeel was an Indian…

  • Retrieve Plantation · 10.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Brazoria County, near what was once Retrieve Plantation. Opened in 1839 by Abner Jackson, this place was a sugar-producing powerhouse, making Jackson and his partner, former South Carolina…

  • Salmon, Richard · 10.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through what was once Velasco, Texas, a place that saw the very beginning of organized Episcopal ministry in the state. <break time="400ms"/> Richard Salmon, a priest from New York, brought fifteen…

  • Sharp, John · 10.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Brazoria County, not far from where John Sharp arrived in Texas back in 1835. He was a soldier and a civil servant, and he jumped right into the fight for Texas independence. Sharp signed…

  • Shipman, Daniel · 10.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through what used to be the wild frontier of Texas, and right here, Daniel Shipman was making his mark. Born in North Carolina in 1801, he arrived in North Texas in 1822, eventually joining Stephen F.…

  • Sweeny, Thomas Jefferson · 10.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Brazoria County, the heart of Texas's early Republic struggles. Right here, in 1835, Thomas Jefferson Sweeny, a recent arrival from Tennessee, signed a petition calling for a convention to ease…

  • Thompson, Jesse · 10.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through what was once Mexican Texas, perhaps near the Brazos River. Right here, Jesse Thompson, one of Stephen F. Austin's original colonists, was trying to make a life for himself. He arrived in Texas…

  • Wharton, John Austin · 10.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through what was once Brazoria County, the heart of a tragic story from the Civil War. John Austin Wharton, a name you might recognize from Terry's Texas Rangers, rose through the ranks to become a major…

  • Williams, Charles F. Augustus · 10.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through what was once the Municipality of Brazoria, right where the town of Columbia became its capital in 1834. Right here, Charles F. Augustus Williams served as sheriff. He was a man who knew military…

  • Brazoria, TX · 10.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Brazoria, a town with a name chosen for its uniqueness. Established in 1828 by John Austin, this settlement on the Brazos River was once a "stirring village" of 800 people. By 1890, it boasted 900…

  • Anchor, TX · 10.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Anchor is at the intersection of Farm roads 521 and 44 four miles northwest of Angleton in central Brazoria County. A two-story residence that was once the Whistler Hotel is all that remained in the 1980s to mark a once…

  • Bell, Thomas B. · 10.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Thomas B. Bell, colonist, farmer, stockman, and soldier, obtained on August 16, 1824, in Stephen F. Austin 's first colony, a tract of 4,428 acres, situated on the west bank of the San Bernard River six miles from the…

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