Navasota, Texas

Everything Navasota is known for

12 songs mention this city 3 artists from here

RoadyGoat plays music like this when you drive through Navasota. It's free on iPhone, and full songs play through Apple Music.

Navasota, Texas, located in the Brazos Valley, has a notable musical identity, particularly recognized as the "Blues Capital of Texas". This designation honors Navasota native Mance Lipscomb, an influential blues singer, guitarist, and songster. His song "Tom Moore's Farm" is among seven songs in our collection that mention Navasota. Another artist from Navasota is Rama Don, a gospel artist. The city's musical heritage is a significant part of its cultural landscape.

Music in Navasota

Songs About Navasota

The Eyes of the Ranger

Tirk Wilder

90%

"The eyes of a Ranger are upon you"

Tom Moore's Farm

Mance Lipscomb

85%

navasota

jesse dayton

80%

#Navasota

Rama Don

80%

Navasota

Will Quinlan & The Diviners

80%

Count My Blessings

Ray Wylie Hubbard

50%

"Go to Navasota after I'm done dying"

Tim Moore's Farm

Lightnin' Hopkins

50%

Flower Garden Blues

Arnett Cobb

30%

Flying Home

Illinois Jacquet

26%

232

Delaney Ann

22%

"But not out in Grimes"

Men Are Getting Scarce

Joe Tex

22%

"She reminds me of them folks up in Navisoda, Texas"

I’ve Been Everywhere...In Texas

Brian Burns

"Navasota"

Artists From Navasota

Rivers & Roads in Song near Navasota

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

Brazos River 43 songs Kickapoo Creek 4 songs Interstate 45 8 songs US Route 90 9 songs Interstate 10 36 songs

Musical Heritage

The Dew Drop Inn and the True Vine RoadyGoat

Alvin Ailey, the choreographer whose dance Revelations became one of the most performed modern dance works in the world, spent part of his boyhood right here. He was born in Rogers in nineteen thirty one, and when he was about six his teenage mother moved them to Navasota. They made their living picking cotton, taking in laundry and cleaning houses. Two places stayed with him. One was True Vine Baptist Church, where his mother sang in the choir. The other was the Dew Drop Inn, a Black dance hall, where, by several accounts, the boy peeked through the windows on Saturday nights while the grown ups danced to the blues. Texas Monthly wrote that the blues of Navasota's nightclubs and the spirituals of its Baptist churches went into his Blues Suite and into Revelations. He left for Los Angeles when he was eleven or twelve. Years later, when his company danced in Leningrad, the audience gave them a twenty three minute ovation.

RoadyGoat →

Joe Tex Came Home RoadyGoat

Joe Tex was born Joseph Arrington Junior in Rogers, Texas. He won amateur night at the Apollo four times, and he pioneered talking over the groove on soul records, with hits like Hold What You've Got, Skinny Legs and All, and I Gotcha, which went platinum. In nineteen sixty eight he joined the Nation of Islam as Yusef Hazziez, and for a few years he left show business for the ministry. He came back in nineteen seventy seven with I Ain't Gonna Bump No More. Then he pulled back to Navasota. He had a heart attack at home here and died in August of nineteen eighty two. Instead of flowers, his family asked for donations to a Joe Tex scholarship fund. He's buried in a cemetery just outside town.

RoadyGoat →

Stubb Was Born in Navasota RoadyGoat

Christopher Stubblefield, the barbecue man everybody called Stubb, was born in Navasota in March of nineteen thirty one, a preacher's son. His family moved to Lubbock when he was a boy. In Korea he was a gunner in an all Black artillery unit and was wounded twice. In nineteen sixty eight he opened Stubb's Bar-B-Q in Lubbock, under a sign that said there will be no bad talk or loud talk in this place. A guitar player built him a stage, and Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Butch Hancock and Terry Allen played there for tips. Muddy Waters, Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson came through. He moved to Austin in the nineteen eighties, and on the day he died, in May of nineteen ninety five, his partners bought the building on Red River Street that became Stubb's. His sauce is sold all over the country.

RoadyGoat →

History of Navasota

Mance Lipscomb, the Navasota Songster RoadyGoat

Navasota is known as the ‘Blues Capital of Texas’ because of one man: Mance Lipscomb. But to call him just a bluesman is to miss the point. For over 60 years, Mance was a tenant farmer, living and working the land right here in the Brazos Valley. Music was just what he did at night and at local gatherings. He was a ‘songster,’ a walking library of American music, playing everything from blues and spirituals to popular dance tunes. He wasn't ‘discovered’ until 1960, when musicologists found him living in a small house without electricity. He was 65 years old. Overnight, he became a star of the folk music revival, playing for huge crowds at festivals and recording albums. Yet he always returned home to Navasota. As you pass through, imagine this humble farmer who carried the soul of Texas music and, late in life, shared it with the world.

RoadyGoat →

The Marshal Who Tamed Navasota, Then Hunted Bonnie and Clyde RoadyGoat

1908

Before he was a legend, Frank Hamer was Navasota's city marshal. He took the job in December 1908 at age 24, leaving the Texas Rangers for a town so violent that gunfights on the main street were common. Over three years he restored order, and by the time he resigned in 1911, the shooting had largely stopped. Hamer went on to a storied career as a Ranger and lawman. In 1934, as a special investigator for the Texas prison system, he led the posse that tracked down outlaws Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow. After a months-long chase, his men ambushed and killed the pair near Gibsland, Louisiana, on May 23, 1934. Navasota honors its former marshal with a life-sized bronze statue on the City Hall grounds, sculpted by Russell Cushman and dedicated in 2013.

The Town the Railroad Built Watched a President Roll Through It RoadyGoat

Union Pacific put a title on this town in 2012 and called it Train Town USA, and it was earned. Three separate railroads came through here: the Houston and Texas Central in September of 1859, the Santa Fe in 1885, the International-Great Northern in 1900. The tracks are the entire reason Navasota is Navasota. Then on the sixth of December, 2018, those tracks carried a president. Union Pacific had painted a locomotive in the blue and white of the Air Force One that George H. W. Bush flew in, and numbered it 4141 for the forty-first president. That engine pulled his funeral train about seventy miles to College Station, and it came right through this town. It was the first presidential funeral train in this country in nearly half a century. They had fitted the car with clear panels so people standing trackside could see the flag-draped casket go past. Thousands of them lined the route. It was cold and wet and not a good day to stand outside, and they stood outside. And some of them laid coins down on the rails. Four hundred twenty thousand pounds of locomotive came through and flattened them, and those people walked home holding a piece of smashed metal they will keep for the rest of their lives. The railroad made this town. Then one day it brought a president through the middle of it, and the whole town came out to the tracks that built it.

RoadyGoat →

La Salle Assassination Site

1687

Bronze statue of René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, erected 1930 in Navasota. Marks the approximate area where he was assassinated by his own men in March 1687 during the failed Fort Saint Louis expedition.

Historical Marker →

La Bahia Trail

1690

Originally an Indian trail through Southern Texas and Louisiana; known to Spanish explorers as early as 1690, when the De Leon Expedition passed this site on the way from Mexico to East Texas. With 115 men, 721 horses, 82 loads of flour, and other supplies, Alonso de Leon, Governor of Coahuila, and Father Massanet, a Franciscan priest, entered the wilds of Texas. The purpose of the expedition was to discourage French encroachment from the north, as well as to explore, colonize, and Christianize the Indians. They followed the rugged trail from the present town of Refugio to Goliad and continued northeast to Navasota, probably following Cedar Creek through this town. Then they journeyed north until reaching the Neches River, where (near present Weches) they founded the Mission of San Francisco de Los Tejas. The church was called after the Tejas, or "Friendly" Indians, whose name was eventually given to the entire state. Although de Leon's party went no farther on the western section of the trail, known as Atascosito Road, the eastern section extended into Louisiana. In nineteenth century, the route gained importance as a cattle trail, the Opelousas Road, that moved Texas herds to market in the north and east.

Historical Marker →

Grimes, Jesse

1826

Jesse Grimes, judge and signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence , son of Sampson and Bethsheba (Winder) Grimes, was born in what is now Duplin County, North Carolina, on February 6, 1788. In 1817 he moved to Washington County, Alabama. His first wife, Martha (Smith), died in 1824; they had nine children. In 1826 he married Mrs. Rosanna Ward Britton; they became the parents of six children. Grimes moved to Texas in 1826 and settled temporarily in Stephen F. Austin 's second colony on the San Jacinto River in what is now Harris County; in the fall of 1827 he settled on Grimes Prairie, now in Grimes County. On March 21, 1829, he was elected first lieutenant of the First Company, Battalion of Austin. He was elected síndico procurador of the Viesca precinct in December 1830 and in December 1831 was elected a regidor of the ayuntamiento . On October 5, 1832, he was put on a subcommittee of safety and vigilance for the Viesca District and on October 6 was appointed treasurer of the district. He represented Washington Municipality in the Consultation and on November 14, 1835, was elected a member of the General Council of the provisional government . Grimes was one of the four representatives from Washington Municipality to the Convention of 1836 at Washington-on-the-Brazos and there signed the Declaration of Independence. On June 3, 1836, he enrolled a company of volunteers for three months' service in the Texas army. He represented Washington County in the Senate of the First Congress of the Republic of Texas from October 3, 1836, to September 25, 1837. From November 1, 1841, to December 8, 1843, he represented Montgomery County in the Sixth and Seventh congresses. He filled out Robert M. Williamson 's unexpired term in the Eighth Congress, representing Washington, Montgomery, and Brazos counties, and was elected to the Ninth Congress, which ended on June 28, 1845. After annexation he was a member of the Senate of the First, Second, Third, and Fourth legislatures. Grimes County was probably named for him. Grimes died on March 15, 1866, and was buried in the John McGinty cemetery, ten miles east of Navasota. In 1929 his remains and those of his second wife were reinterred in the State Cemetery .

Tsha Handbook →

Hamer, Francis Augustus

1906

Francis Augustus Hamer, a prominent Texas Ranger, was born in Fairview, Texas, on March 17, 1884, to Franklin Augustus Hamer and Lou Emma (Francis) Hamer. Known commonly as Frank or Pancho, he spent his early childhood on the Welch Ranch in San Saba County. In 1894 the family moved to Oxford in Llano County where Hamer worked at his father's blacksmith shop. He attended a rural school in Oxford through approximately the sixth grade. He also personally trained himself to excel in horsemanship and marksmanship. In 1901 Hamer and his brother, Harrison Hamer, found work as wranglers on Green Berry Ketchum, Jr.'s ranch in Pecos County near Sheffield. Ketchum was a brother of outlaw Tom "Black Jack" Ketchum ( see KETCHUM BOYS ). In 1905 Sheriff Dudley S. Barker recommended that Hamer, who was working as a cowboy on the Carr Ranch between Sheffield and Fort Stockton, join the Texas Rangers after he captured a horse thief. On April 21, 1906, Hamer enlisted as a private in the Texas Rangers in Capt. John H. Rogers 's Company C. Working primarily along the South Texas border, Hamer became known as an expert shot and was involved in murder investigations, gambling arrests, and was part of Ranger details assigned to protect and transport prisoners, often in the midst of racially-charged environments. He left the Rangers on November 30, 1908, to become city marshal of the lawless town of Navasota, Texas. By the time Hamer resigned as marshall on April 21, 1911, he had restored a semblance of order in the town, in large part by enforcing his authority over the racist White Man's Union that had run the town's politics and law. While working in Navasota, Frank Hamer married Mollie Bobadillo Cameron on March 19, 1911, in Hempstead, Texas. They were divorced by early 1915. From 1911 to 1915 Hamer worked as a special officer in Houston. He rejoined the Rangers on March 29, 1915, and initially investigated livestock thefts in Kimble County but eventually was stationed along the Rio Grande and patrolled the border. He resigned on November 8, 1915, and became a brand inspector for the Cattle Raisers' Association of Texas ( see TEXAS AND SOUTHWESTERN CATTLE RAISERS ASSOCIATION ) but obtained a "Special Ranger" warrant and was attached to Company C. Hamer married Ida Gladys Johnson on May 12, 1917. Johnson had two daughters from a previous marriage, and Hamer adopted them. Hamer and his wife later had two sons of their own. On October 1, 1918, he enlisted in Company F in Brownsville and fought drug smuggling; he was soon promoted to sergeant. The ongoing Mexican Revolution fueled a period of domestic turmoil in Mexico and anti-Mexican sentiment in the United States. In 1919 State Representative José Tomás Canales brought before the Joint Committee of the Senate and the House in the Investigation of the Texas State Ranger Force nineteen charges against the Texas Rangers for racial violence. Hamer, in December 1918 in San Benito, had previously confronted and threatened Canales over the investigation. Weeks later Canales encountered him in Austin. Canales accused Hamer of stalking him, commenting that "his presence was made known to me," and submitted evidence of these threats in the proceedings records. Later in the proceedings, William W. Sterling , who later was made a captain in the Rangers, defended Hamer's record but conceded that Hamer usually meant the threats he made. Still with Company F, Hamer investigated illegal arms smuggling along the Rio Grande in late 1918 to early 1919. In one incident, he reportedly refused to "turn a blind eye" as instructed by Capt. William Martin Hanson, regarding a shipment from Houston reportedly going to Pancho Villa , and instead met with Tamaulipas police commander Lt. Col. Manual Bernea to work with Mexican soldiers along the border regarding smugglers. At this time Hamer was placed on detached duty; his warrant of authority ended on June 19, 1919. He was later able to reenlist, in Company B, on November 25,

Tsha Handbook →

Lipscomb, Mance

1895

Mance Lipscomb, guitarist and songster, was born Bowdie Glenn Lipscomb, in the Brazos bottoms near Navasota, Texas, on April 9, 1895. He was the son of Charles and Jane Lipscomb. Mance lived in the Brazos valley most of his life as a tenant farmer. His father was an Alabama slave who acquired the surname Lipscomb when he was sold to a Texas family of that name. Lipscomb dropped his given name and named himself Mance when a friend, an old man called Emancipation, died. Lipscomb and Elnora, his wife of sixty-three years, had one son, Mance Jr., three adopted children, and twenty-four grandchildren. Lipscomb represented one of the last remnants of the nineteenth-century songster tradition, which predated the development of the blues . Though songsters might incorporate blues into their repertoires, as did Lipscomb, they performed a wide variety of material in diverse styles, much of it common to both Black and White traditions in the South, including ballads, rags, dance pieces (breakdowns, waltzes, one and two steps, slow drags, reels, ballin' the jack, the buzzard lope, hop scop, buck and wing, heel and toe polka), and popular, sacred, and secular songs. Lipscomb himself insisted that he was a songster, not a guitarist or "blues singer," since he played "all kinds of music." His eclectic repertoire has been reported to have contained 350 pieces spanning two centuries. (He likewise took exception when he was labeled a "sharecropper" instead of a "farmer.") Lipscomb was born into a musical family and began playing at an early age. His father was a fiddler, his uncle played the banjo, and his brothers were guitarists. His mother bought him a guitar when he was eleven, and he was soon accompanying his father, and later entertaining alone, at suppers and Saturday night dances. Although he had some contact with such early recording artists as fellow Texans Blind Lemon Jefferson and Blind Willie Johnson and early country star Jimmie Rodgers , he did not make recordings until his "discovery" by Whites during the folk-song revival of the 1960s. Between 1905 and 1956 he farmed as a tenant for a series of landlords in and around Grimes County, including the notorious Tom Moore, subject of a local ballad. Lipscomb left Moore's employ abruptly and went into hiding after he struck a foreman for abusing his mother and wife. His rendition of "Tom Moore's Farm" was taped at his first session in 1960 but released anonymously (Arhoolie LP 1017, Texas Blues, Volume 2 ), presumably to protect the singer. Between 1956 and 1958 Lipscomb lived in Houston, working for a lumber company during the day and playing at night in bars where he vied for audiences with Texas blues great Lightnin' Hopkins , whom Lipscomb had first met in Galveston in 1938. With compensation from an on-the-job accident, he returned to Navasota and was finally able to buy some land and build a house of his own. He was working as foreman of a highway-mowing crew in Grimes County when blues researchers Chris Strachwitz of Arhoolie Records and Mack McCormick of Houston found and recorded him in 1960. Lipscomb's encounter with Strachwitz and McCormick marked the beginning of over a decade of involvement in the folk-song revival, during which he won wide acclaim and emulation from young White audiences and performers for his virtuosity as a guitarist and the breadth of his repertoire. Admirers enjoyed his lengthy reminiscences and eloquent observations regarding music and life, many of which are contained in taped and written materials in the Lipscomb-Alyn Collection in the archives and manuscripts section of the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History at the University of Texas at Austin. He made numerous recordings and appeared at such festivals as the Berkeley Folk Festival of 1961, where he played before a crowd of more than 40,000. In clubs Lipscomb often shared the bill with young revivalists or rock bands. He was also the subject of a film, A Well-Spent Life (1970), made by Le

Tsha Handbook →

Sexing Technologies (Navasota)

1996

World's largest producer of sex-sorted bovine semen, headquartered at 22575 State Highway 6 S, Navasota. Founded 1996 by Juan Moreno, commercializing USDA flow-cytometry sperm sorting.

Local Knowledge → · 4.2 mi away

Things to Do in Navasota

quirky 0.1 mi away

The Blues Capital of Texas

Mance Lipscomb picked cotton all week and picked guitar all weekend on the farms outside Navasota for decades before anyone beyond Grimes County knew his name.…

historical 0.1 mi away

The Explorer Who Died Lost

On March 19 1687 the French explorer Rene-Robert Cavelier Sieur de La Salle was walking through the bottomlands near the Navasota River when one of his own men…

historical 23.9 mi away

The Night Federal Troops Burned Brenham

In 1866 Union soldiers occupying Brenham during Reconstruction clashed with local residents and set fire to an entire city block. The flames consumed…

quirky 24.0 mi away

The Underground City Beneath the Streets

After fires ravaged Brenham three times in a decade the town did something no other Texas city had attempted. They built twenty-seven underground cisterns…

quirky 24.1 mi away

From Cotton Gin to Ice Cream Empire

In 1907 a group of Washington County dairy farmers converted an abandoned cotton gin into a creamery and started making butter. Ice cream production began in…

historical 0.1 mi away

The Summer Everything Died

In August 1867 yellow fever swept into Navasota and the town simply collapsed. Of three thousand residents more than half fled within days leaving the sick to…

historical 0.1 mi away

The Night the Cotton Burned

In 1865 the Civil War was over but the chaos was not. A warehouse in Navasota packed with cotton bales and gunpowder exploded after Confederate veterans angry…

historical 0.1 mi away

Birthplace Next Door

Just seven miles from Navasota sits Washington-on-the-Brazos where fifty-nine delegates signed the Texas Declaration of Independence on March 2 1836. They did…

Sports in Navasota

⭐ HOMETOWN LEGENDS Class 4A · Football

Navasota Rattlers — Navasota — a college & pro athletic pipeline

3 alumni who reached major-college or pro sports

Navasota High School has a proud tradition of developing athletes who achieve at high levels beyond their time as Rattlers. The dedication and talent cultivated in Navasota have paved the way for several alumni to compete in major college and professional sports. These individuals represent the spirit of athletic pursuit that thrives within our community.

Among the notable alumni are Clay Condrey, a former Major League Baseball relief pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies and San Diego Padres. Shelton Eppler has gone on to become a professional football quarterback. Additionally, Jarvis Harrison is a former professional football offensive guard, showcasing the diverse athletic pathways taken by Navasota graduates.

Pro/D1 alumni

Class

Key Players

Clay Condrey — , (born November 19, 1975) former Major League Baseball relief pitcher for the Philadelphi
Shelton Eppler — , professional football quarterback.
Jarvis Harrison — , (born December 25, 1991), former professional football offensive guard

The moment

Clay Condrey pitched as a relief pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies and San Diego Padres.

Sources: Wikipedia · SI High School (ScoreBook Live)

Everything Near Navasota

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

Mance Lipscomb, the Navasota Songster
Navasota is known as the ‘Blues Capital of Texas’ because of one man: Mance Lipscomb. But to call him just a bluesman is to miss the point. For over 60 years, Mance was a tenant farmer, living and working the land right…
The Marshal Who Tamed Navasota, Then Hunted Bonnie and Clyde
Before he was a legend, Frank Hamer was Navasota's city marshal. He took the job in December 1908 at age 24, leaving the Texas Rangers for a town so violent that gunfights on the main street were common. Over three…
The Town the Railroad Built Watched a President Roll Through It
Union Pacific put a title on this town in 2012 and called it Train Town USA, and it was earned. Three separate railroads came through here: the Houston and Texas Central in September of 1859, the Santa Fe in 1885, the…
The Day the Soldiers Blew Up Navasota
On the twenty third of May, eighteen sixty five, two weeks after the Confederate armies in Texas fell apart, soldiers heading home unpaid were looting government stores all along the railroad. Navasota had been a…
La Salle Assassination Site · Historical Marker
Bronze statue of René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, erected 1930 in Navasota. Marks the approximate area where he was assassinated by his own men in March 1687 during the failed Fort Saint Louis expedition.
Engineering a Town's Existence
Navasota is the town it is today because of a 19th-century engineering decision — but it was already here when the rails showed up. The place began as a stagecoach crossroads, settled as Hollandale in 1822, home to…
Navasota, TX
This area holds echoes of French explorer La Salle, who met his end nearby in 1687 after a misguided expedition. His bones are believed to rest in the Navasota Valley. Originally settled as Hollandale in 1822, the town…
Navasota, TX
In 1865, a warehouse filled with cotton and gunpowder exploded after it was torched by returning Confederate soldiers. The blast killed a number of people and started a fire that destroyed much of the original downtown…
They Made Six Hundred Thousand Dollars Out of the Part Nobody Wanted
For most of the cotton era the seed was garbage. A gin pulled the fiber off the boll and left a mountain of seed behind it, and there was so much more of it than anybody could plant that farmers dumped it, burned it, or…
The Dew Drop Inn and the True Vine
Alvin Ailey, the choreographer whose dance Revelations became one of the most performed modern dance works in the world, spent part of his boyhood right here. He was born in Rogers in nineteen thirty one, and when he…
Three Months of Yellow Fever
In August of eighteen sixty seven, yellow fever came up the railroad to Navasota. One report said Navasota and La Grange suffered the most in Texas for their size. A doctor named Andrew Kilpatrick stayed to treat the…
Hamer at the Depot
Frank Hamer, the Texas Ranger who later ran down Bonnie and Clyde, was hired as Navasota's special officer in November of nineteen oh eight. The local paper shows a lot of ordinary work: shooting mad dogs, once chasing…

Show all 200 nearby places

From Tents at a River Crossing to a Railroad Town
Navasota grew from a river crossing. The old La Bahia Road, a Spanish colonial route, forded the Navasota River right here, roughly halfway between Anderson and Washington-on-the-Brazos. Francis Holland settled land…
A Thousand Seats, in Texas, in 1884
By 1884 Navasota had five churches, two flour mills, a bank, several cotton gins running on steam, and an opera house that seated a thousand people. A thousand. Sit with that number for a second. This was a Texas…
Joe Tex Came Home
Joe Tex was born Joseph Arrington Junior in Rogers, Texas. He won amateur night at the Apollo four times, and he pioneered talking over the groove on soul records, with hits like Hold What You've Got, Skinny Legs and…
Sixteen and Oh, Twice
Navasota's boys won the state basketball title in nineteen ninety, but in football the Rattlers had lost their only state final, back in nineteen eighty eight. Then came December of twenty twelve. The night before the…
The Jury of June Fourteenth
On the fourteenth of June, eighteen sixty seven, under a new military order, a jury made up entirely of Black men was seated in the Navasota mayor's court. A telegraph dispatch from Galveston called it the first Black…
The Millican Feud
Millican was named for Brazos County's founding family, and after the Civil War that family fought a feud. In February of eighteen seventy, Deputy William Millican was killed by Colonel R. C. Myers in a personal…
A New Day in Texas Prison History
About five miles south of Navasota is the Wallace Pack prison unit, which opened in nineteen eighty three and holds many older and sick inmates. In twenty fourteen, inmates there sued over the heat, pointing to nearly…
Doctor Rosa's Terrible Beginning
Rosa Goodrich was born in Navasota in eighteen seventy, the granddaughter of Doctor Benjamin Briggs Goodrich, a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence. Her start was terrible. When she was a baby, her father…
Stubb Was Born in Navasota
Christopher Stubblefield, the barbecue man everybody called Stubb, was born in Navasota in March of nineteen thirty one, a preacher's son. His family moved to Lubbock when he was a boy. In Korea he was a gunner in an…
The Navasota Tarantula
Ned Garvin was born in Navasota on New Year's Day, eighteen seventy four, and the baseball writer Bill James called him maybe the hardest luck pitcher of all time. His earned run average beat the league average every…
The Rattlesnake's Parking Sensor
Navasota's teams are the Rattlers, so here's how a rattle works. A rattle is a stack of loose, hollow segments made of keratin, the same stuff as your fingernails. A baby rattlesnake starts with a single button and adds…
The Ship Texas Drained the Sea to Reach
There's a statue of the French explorer La Salle in Navasota, marking the old tradition that he was killed near here in sixteen eighty seven, though historians still argue about exactly where. His doomed Texas colony…
The Courtroom at Washington
On the nineteenth of November, eighteen sixty nine, at Washington on the Brazos, southwest of Navasota, Deputy Nelson Maxey was keeping order in a justice of the peace's courtroom when two men, Bob Gooden and James…
Two Rival Papers Started Seven Months Apart, Then Gave Up and Merged
Eighteen ninety-four was a busy year for the printing trade in Grimes County. In February the Grimes County Review came off the press for the first time. Then on the twenty-third of September, seven months behind it,…
A River of Four Names
The Navasota River has had four names. Spanish explorers called it the San Cypriano, and then the San Buenaventura. In seventeen twenty seven, Pedro de Rivera wrote it down as Navasota, and that name stuck. The Handbook…
The Man in the Grave May Not Be the Name on the Map
In the Stoneham cemetery, east of Navasota, lies Andrew Jackson Montgomery, and the markers at his grave argue with each other. One state marker says he came to Texas with the Long Expedition in eighteen nineteen, that…
How Navasota Became the Blues Capital
The Legislature named Navasota the official Blues Capital of Texas in two thousand five, in honor of Mance Lipscomb, and the idea grew out of a blues festival the town started in nineteen ninety six. Downtown, a mural…
The County That Gave Up Its Flour
In early nineteen eighteen, with American troops headed for France, a Navasota wholesale grocer named J. T. Swanson talked the county's flour dealers into handing their flour over to the government. Earl Yeager of Iola…
The Night the Oil Mill Burned
About ten o'clock on the night of the twentieth of August, nineteen ten, the Schumacher oil mill, where Navasota had been turning cottonseed into oil since the eighteen seventies, caught fire. It started in a conveyor,…
They Fought the Fire With Wine
In November of eighteen sixty eight, a fire in Navasota destroyed several large stores. A month later, a newspaper in South Carolina ran a curious note about it. A winemaker named Gouvea, whom it called famous, had…
Where the Blues Got Its Name
Navasota is officially the Blues Capital of Texas, named in honor of Mance Lipscomb, so here's where the word blues comes from. Blue has meant low spirited in English since around the year fourteen hundred, and the…
The Marshal With Thirty Five Writs
In the winter of eighteen sixty six, a deputy United States marshal named W. G. Connell was assassinated at Navasota. A report from the Austin paper said he had been carrying thirty five writs from the federal court,…
The Orchid Named for the River
In nineteen forty five, a botanist named H. B. Parks collected an orchid nobody had described before, in the post oak woods along the Navasota River. It was named for him, Spiranthes parksii, the Navasota ladies'…
Lynn Grove United Methodist Church · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Lynn Grove United Methodist Church, which began in the late 1880s. The first services were held under a brush arbor by traveling circuit riders, with a wooden church building completed in…
The Explorer Who Died Lost · 0.1 mi · Things to Do
On March 19 1687 the French explorer Rene-Robert Cavelier Sieur de La Salle was walking through the bottomlands near the Navasota River when one of his own men…
The Blues Capital of Texas · 0.1 mi · Things to Do
Mance Lipscomb picked cotton all week and picked guitar all weekend on the farms outside Navasota for decades before anyone beyond Grimes County knew his name.…
La Bahia Trail · 0.1 mi · Historical Marker
Originally an Indian trail through Southern Texas and Louisiana; known to Spanish explorers as early as 1690, when the De Leon Expedition passed this site on the way from Mexico to East Texas. With 115 men, 721 horses,…
The Explorer Killed Near Here in 1687 · 0.1 mi
A bronze statue stands in the median of Washington Avenue honoring Rene-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, the French explorer who claimed the Mississippi Valley for France. In 1687, after his Gulf Coast colony failed,…
The Summer Everything Died · 0.1 mi · Things to Do
In August 1867 yellow fever swept into Navasota and the town simply collapsed. Of three thousand residents more than half fled within days leaving the sick to…
The Night the Cotton Burned · 0.1 mi · Things to Do
In 1865 the Civil War was over but the chaos was not. A warehouse in Navasota packed with cotton bales and gunpowder exploded after Confederate veterans angry…
The Town Under Six Flags · 0.1 mi · Things to Do
Navasota sits near Washington-on-the-Brazos where the Texas Declaration of Independence was signed and that location gives it a claim few towns can match. All…
Birthplace Next Door · 0.1 mi · Things to Do
Just seven miles from Navasota sits Washington-on-the-Brazos where fifty-nine delegates signed the Texas Declaration of Independence on March 2 1836. They did…
Turning Cotton's Trash Into Oil: The Science of the Seed Mill · 0.1 mi
Navasota built one of Texas's first cottonseed oil mills, and the science behind it was clever. Henry Schumacher opened his mill here in 1873, assembling the machinery with the help of an old encyclopedia. Every pound…
Giesel House, The · 0.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of the Giesel House, built in 1860 by R.H. Giesel and his wife Fannie. It started as a restaurant and hotel near the railroad depot. Fannie Giesel famously renamed the restaurant 'The Good…
Train Town USA · 0.1 mi · Things to Do
When the Houston and Texas Central Railway steamed into Navasota in September 1859 it transformed a sleepy stagecoach stop into a shipping powerhouse. Cotton…
The Road That Built Texas · 0.1 mi · Things to Do
Before there were highways there was La Bahia Road and it ran right through what would become Navasota. This ancient trail connected the Spanish missions at…
The Victorian Ladies of Railroad Street · 0.1 mi · Things to Do
Cotton money built Navasota and cotton money built the houses that still make visitors slow their cars on Railroad Street. In the 1870s and 1880s merchants…
The Horlock History Center · 0.1 mi · Things to Do
The old Horlock House in Navasota started as a family home built in 1893 and spent a century being everything from a residence to a boarding house before the…
Terrell House · 0.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Navasota, and you're passing the Terrell House, built in 1897 for Emmeline B. Terrell, the widow of a local pharmacist. Her mother, Elizabeth Owen, commissioned the home. Just two years later, in…
Leake Building · 0.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Leake Building in Navasota, a structure that's seen quite a transformation. Originally a simple frame business house built in 1873, it was dramatically expanded in 1885 with native sandstone…
Mickelborough Building · 0.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Mickelborough Building, a testament to Navasota's resilience. After a fire swept through this block in 1874, Eliza Johnson rebuilt here, using limestone rubble to meet new fireproof building…
Saint Paul's Episocpal Church · 0.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Navasota. An Episcopal mission was organized here in 1864, becoming a parish in 1866. The congregation acquired and moved a church building from Washington…
First Presbyterian Church of Navasota · 0.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the First Presbyterian Church of Navasota. It was organized in 1866, drawing members from an older church in Washington, Texas. The first building went up in 1876, and this Victorian structure, built…
Grimes, Jesse · 0.2 mi · Tsha Handbook
Jesse Grimes, judge and signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence , son of Sampson and Bethsheba (Winder) Grimes, was born in what is now Duplin County, North Carolina, on February 6, 1788. In 1817 he moved to…
Hamer, Francis Augustus · 0.2 mi · Tsha Handbook
Francis Augustus Hamer, a prominent Texas Ranger, was born in Fairview, Texas, on March 17, 1884, to Franklin Augustus Hamer and Lou Emma (Francis) Hamer. Known commonly as Frank or Pancho, he spent his early childhood…
Lipscomb, Mance · 0.2 mi · Tsha Handbook
Mance Lipscomb, guitarist and songster, was born Bowdie Glenn Lipscomb, in the Brazos bottoms near Navasota, Texas, on April 9, 1895. He was the son of Charles and Jane Lipscomb. Mance lived in the Brazos valley most of…
Navasota, TX · 0.2 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Navasota, a town that faced a brutal few years in the mid-1860s. Right here, in 1865, a warehouse packed with cotton and gunpowder exploded after Confederate veterans torched it. The blast and…
Blackshear, Kathleen · 0.2 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Navasota, the hometown of Kathleen Blackshear, an artist and teacher who left a unique mark on art history. From 1924 to 1940, Blackshear drew inspiration from her childhood memories and African…
Larkin, Milton, Sr. · 0.2 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through East Texas, maybe near Navasota, where a jazz legend got his start. Milton Larkin, Sr. was a self-taught trumpet player who formed his own band in 1936. They became known as 'probably the last of…
Shannon, Denman William · 0.2 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Grimes County, Texas, where Captain Denman William Shannon formed the Grimes County Rangers in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1861</say-as>. This company became Company C of the Fifth…
Freeman Inn · 0.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Navasota, and right here is the site of the historic Freeman Inn. Built in 1856 by Ira M. Freeman, this two-story pine building was a crucial way station and hotel for passengers traveling on…
Boone, Hannibal Honestus · 0.2 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through the heart of Texas, and right here, in what is now Waller County, a man named Hannibal Honestus Boone carved out a life. Born in Tennessee, Boone moved his family to Texas in 1852. He studied law,…
Ryan, James Delbridge · 0.2 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Navasota, the birthplace of James Delbridge Ryan, a dedicated Black educator who spent fifty years shaping young minds. Born here in 1872, Professor Ryan went on to become principal of Houston…
Washington, James H. · 0.2 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Grimes County, and right here near Navasota, you're passing through a place that was once home to James H. Washington. Born in Virginia in 1850, Washington came to Texas in the early 1870s and…
Brooks, Joseph, Home · 0.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the historic Joseph Brooks home in Navasota. Brooks, originally from England, came to Texas in 1853. After fighting in the Civil War, he settled here and, remarkably, survived the devastating yellow…
Steele House · 0.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Steele House in Navasota, a beautiful example of late Victorian architecture. Built in 1896 for A. G. Steele and his wife Etta, this home showcases intricate Eastlake style details on its porches…
First National Bank of Navasota, Old · 0.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Old First National Bank of Navasota, built in the 1880s by James Davern and C.C. Camp. Originally a commercial building of cement-covered stone rubble, it was updated with Renaissance Revival…
First Baptist Church of Navasota · 0.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of the First Baptist Church of Navasota, one of the very first churches in this railroad town. It started with just six men in the spring of 1860, but grew to 52 members by fall. After…
Wilson, Lewis J., Building · 0.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Lewis J. Wilson Building in Navasota. Wilson, who came to Grimes County in 1851, served in the Civil War before returning to open a mercantile business. This brick building, completed in 1871,…
Evans, R. J. · 0.2 mi · Tsha Handbook
R. J. Evans, Black politician, was born a slave in Louisiana in 1853. He entered Texas in 1857 and became a schoolteacher after emancipation and before his election as city alderman of Navasota. In 1878 he was elected…
Blackshear, Thomas Edward · 0.2 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Grimes County, Texas, near Navasota. Back in 1858, a wealthy Georgia planter named Thomas Edward Blackshear packed up his slaves and moved here. He bought land along the Navasota and Brazos Rivers…
Navasota River · 0.2 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving along the Navasota River, a waterway with a name that echoes through Texas history. Indigenous peoples likely called it Nabasoto. Spanish explorers gave it a string of names: San Cypriano, San…
Rush, Gertrude Durden · 0.2 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Navasota, the birthplace of Gertrude Durden Rush. Born in 1880, she became a trailblazing lawyer and community leader. After marrying attorney James B. Rush, she learned law and passed the bar in…
First United Methodist Church of Navasota · 0.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Navasota's First United Methodist Church. Worship services began in 1853, and this congregation received land from the railroad in 1866 to build its first chapel. The church has seen…
Evans House · 0.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Evans House in Navasota, built in 1894 by newlyweds John Thomas and Maude Martin Evans. He was a ticket agent for the railroad and also served the city as alderman and treasurer. This typical…
Neal, George D., Lt. Gov., Home of · 0.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're cruising through Navasota, Texas, past the former home of George D. Neal. Born in Virginia in 1853, Neal's family brought him to Texas in 1866. After earning his law degree, he settled in Navasota in 1881, buying…
Youens, Jesse, Home · 0.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Jesse Youens home, built in 1871, right here in Navasota. It's a direct echo of "Tower Cottage," the home Youens grew up in, back in Dartford, Kent, England. Imagine that – bringing a piece of…
Lee Tabernacle Methodist Church · 0.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Lee Tabernacle Methodist Church, a Gothic Revival beauty that's served Navasota for over 130 years. Founded in 1860, the congregation worshipped with Baptists before building their own sanctuary…
Norwood House · 0.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Norwood House in Navasota, a beautiful example of Queen Anne architecture completed in 1898. It was built for Ewing and Mattie Norwood, who lived here while Ewing served as president of the First…
Foster Home · 0.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Mattie Foster Home, built back in 1900. Mattie Brigance Foster, whose father settled Grimes County, had it constructed right after her husband passed away. This house showcases a shift in…
Sangster House · 0.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're cruising past the Sangster House in Navasota, a place built on a bit of luck! In 1902, Robert "Buck" Sangster used part of the winnings from a lottery ticket to build this incredible 12-room home. It's a stunning…
Horlock, Robert A., House · 0.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're cruising through Navasota, and if you look closely, you might catch a glimpse of the Robert A. Horlock House. Horlock arrived in Navasota back in 1871 and quickly became a big deal in business and civic life. He…
Templeman House · 0.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Templeman House in Navasota, a beautiful reminder of the town's early cotton boom days. Built in the mid-1890s for newlyweds Ward and Annie Templeman, this home started out in the Queen Anne…
George Washington Carver High School · 0.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past where George Washington Carver High School once stood. It started around 1865 as the Navasota Colored School for African American students. After surviving fires and moving buildings, it officially…
Freedman Town · 1.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Freedman Town, a community established by freed slaves right after emancipation in 1865. They bought land, built homes, and created churches, schools, and businesses. By 1919, Navasota's…
Number One vs Number Two, Two Overtimes, 20,853 Watching · 1.4 mi
The 2014 Class 4A Division I championship game matched two unbeaten teams ranked first and second: Navasota and Argyle, both 15-0, with Argyle riding a 31-game winning streak as defending champion in a lower division.…
Sixteen and Oh, and a Defense That Barely Gave Anything Up · 1.4 mi
Lee Fedora's Navasota Rattlers went 16-0 in 2012 and beat Gilmer 39-3 at Cowboys Stadium on December 21 for the school's first state football championship, in Class 3A Division II. The defense was the story all year:…
They Wore His Number on Their Helmets · 1.4 mi
Navasota's leading rusher in 2012, Xavier Creeks — a two-time all-state defensive back — broke his leg in a car accident on the Thursday morning before the state championship game and could not play. His teammates wore…
A State Record and a National Record, on the Same Team · 1.4 mi
In the 2014 state championship game, Navasota quarterback Shelton Eppler completed 30 of 54 passes for 493 yards and four touchdowns with no interceptions — and all four touchdown passes went to the same player, junior…
From a 42-8 Loss in 1988 to Two Perfect Champions · 1.4 mi
Navasota's first trip to a state final came in 1988, under Mike Dacus, after playoff wins over Brookshire Royal 12-7, Hamshire-Fannett 7-0, Fairfield 13-10 and Sweeny 14-8 — four wins by a combined 21 points. The Class…
R. B. S. Foster Home · 2.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're cruising past the R.B.S. Foster Home, a grand old plantation house built in 1859 by cotton planter Malcolm Camp. Notice the architectural style, reminiscent of the Atlantic states, with its high-ceilinged,…
CForce Bottling (Chuck Norris Ranch) · 4.0 mi · Things to Do
Yes Chuck Norris owns a ranch right here outside Navasota and he uses it to bottle water. The Lone Wolf Ranch sits just east of town off Highway 105 and…
CForce Bottling Co. · 4.1 mi
Chuck Norris and his wife Gena discovered a natural artesian water source on their thousand-acre cattle ranch west of Navasota. The water rises to the surface on its own from an aquifer more than three hundred feet deep…
Sexing Technologies (Navasota) · 4.2 mi · Local Knowledge
World's largest producer of sex-sorted bovine semen, headquartered at 22575 State Highway 6 S, Navasota. Founded 1996 by Juan Moreno, commercializing USDA flow-cytometry sperm sorting.
CForce Bottling Company · 4.2 mi
In 2011, during one of the worst droughts in Texas history, Chuck Norris's ranch foreman Chris Tagudin dug a third water well on the Lone Wolf Ranch in Navasota — and struck an artesian spring gushing 168,000 gallons a…
South Brazos, TX · 5.1 mi · Local history
South Brazos sits squarely in Brazos County, a place where the rolling plains of Central Texas begin their slow descent toward the coastal prairies. The town's name is a direct reflection of its geography, a simple…
Washington-on-the-Brazos · 5.6 mi · Historical Marker
On a bitterly cold March 2, 1836, fifty-nine delegates crowded into an unfinished building without walls in this small town on the Brazos River and signed the Texas Declaration of Independence. They knew the Alamo was…
Republic of Texas - Washington-on-the-Brazos · 5.6 mi · Historical Marker
On March 2, 1836, in a cold, unfinished building at Washington-on-the-Brazos, 59 delegates signed the Texas Declaration of Independence while Santa Anna's army was besieging the Alamo 150 miles to the southwest. Texas…
Washington County · 5.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Washington-on-the-Brazos, the birthplace of the Republic of Texas. Right here, in March of <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1836</say-as>, delegates gathered for the Constitutional…
Washington-on-the-Brazos · 5.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Washington-on-the-Brazos, the very place where Texas declared its independence and served as the Republic's first capital! It started as a ferry crossing in 1822 and quickly became a hub. Imagine,…
Childress, George Campbell · 5.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site where Texas declared its independence! George Campbell Childress, born in Tennessee in 1804, arrived in Texas in late 1835. Just months later, in March 1836, he chaired the committee that…
Robinson, Andrew, Sr. · 5.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of a true Texas pioneer, Andrew Robinson Sr. He was the very first of Stephen F. Austin's "Old 300" colonists to set foot in Texas, arriving way back in November of 1821 with his wife and…
Harmony Baptist Church and Cemetery · 5.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Harmony Baptist Church and Cemetery near Navasota. Back in 1853, John Moore McGinty and his wife Mary organized the Grimes Prairie Baptist Church. Around 1859, the congregation moved to a local…
Texas Independence: One Day, No Walls, No Debate · 6.0 mi
On March second, eighteen thirty-six, fifty-nine delegates gathered in an unfinished building here in Washington-on-the-Brazos and signed the Texas Declaration of Independence. The building had no finished walls — a…
The $11,000 Decision That Killed a Capital City · 6.0 mi
Washington-on-the-Brazos was the birthplace of Texas independence and, for a time in the eighteen forties, the capital of the Republic of Texas. By 1856 it had grown to seven hundred fifty people and was one of the more…
Capital of the Republic · 6.0 mi
After Texas won its independence, Washington-on-the-Brazos had one more moment of national consequence. During Sam Houston's second term as president, the Republic of Texas moved its capital here, and the town served as…
Hatfield Plantation · 6.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Hatfield Plantation, built in 1853 by slave labor for Basil M. Hatfield. He was a San Jacinto soldier whose steamboat traveled the Brazos River. His store building here was even used by the…
washington, TX · 6.0 mi
Washington-on-the-Brazos was named in honor of Washington, Georgia, which in turn was named after George Washington. After the Civil War, to distinguish it from Washington-on-the-Potomac, Washington, D.C., the…
Fuqua Family Cemetery · 6.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Anderson, near the Fuqua Family Cemetery. Ephraim Fuqua, an early settler, received land here in 1841 and donated part of it for this burial ground. The first recorded burial was Confederate…
Brigham, Asa · 6.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Washington, Texas, the birthplace of the Texas Republic. Keep an eye out for the marker honoring Asa Brigham. He was a key figure in those crucial early years. Brigham served as the Alcalde of…
Smith, John William · 6.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site where John William Smith took his final breath. Born in Virginia in 1792, Smith was a soldier in the army of the Republic of Texas. After his military service, he became a member of Congress…
Washington County, TX · 7.7 mi · Local history
The rolling prairies of Washington County, part of the Blackland Prairie region, drew early settlers to Central Texas. Fertile soil promised good yields of cotton and other crops, and soon farms dotted the landscape.…
Lynn Grove, TX · 7.8 mi · Local history
Lynn Grove, Texas, sits in a sweet spot for peach cultivation. The sandy loam soil, coupled with the area's typically mild winters and hot summers, creates ideal conditions for growing these delicate fruits. While…
Courtney Cemetery · 8.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Courtney Cemetery. Located on land which is adjacent to the 1873 subdivision of Courtney known as McAlpine Town, this cemetery was established by developer Dugald McAlpine (1795-1876). The oldest…
African American Catholic Community · 8.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of what's believed to be the oldest African American Catholic community in Texas! It all started in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1848</say-as>, when the Spann families migrated…
A Black Catholic Church Since 1888 · 8.3 mi
On Sweed Road, in rural Washington County, the Spann family arrived from South Carolina in the late 1840s, bringing with them enslaved people, including the Sweed family, who had converted to Catholicism. Both families…
He Turned Into the Wrong-Way Driver · 8.4 mi
State Highway Six in Brazos County, between the southern city limits of College Station and the northern city limits of Navasota, carries the name of Sergeant Mark Butler of the Navasota Police Department. Butler was an…
Friedens Church of Washington, UCC · 8.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Washington County, the heart of German immigrant history here in Texas. In 1890, Rev. David Buchmueller arrived to serve as both pastor and school teacher for the Friedens Evangelical Church,…
Mercy Seat Baptist Church · 8.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Mercy Seat Baptist Church, organized in 1894 by Reverend J. L. Lawson and community members. The original building was south of here, and in 1953, the congregation voted to build a new…
The Millican Massacre · 8.8 mi
From July 15 to 17, 1868, Millican was the site of what one historian called the worst incident of racial violence in Texas during Reconstruction. Call it what it was: a massacre. The Klan had started riding through…
Millican, TX: The Boom Town and the Summer of 1868 · 8.8 mi
Millican sits quietly now, but it was once the loudest place in this part of Texas. On the Brazos bottomland it grew as a cotton shipping point, and from 1860 to 1867 it was the end of the Houston and Texas Central…
Millican, TX · 8.8 mi
Millican, Texas, is named in honor of Robert Millican, recognized as the first white settler of the region that would later be known as Brazos County. The community's name pays tribute to this pioneering figure,…
Millican, TX: The Town at the End of the Line · 8.8 mi
Millican is here because the rails stopped here. From 1860 to 1867 this was the end of the Houston and Texas Central line, and that briefly made it the biggest town north of Houston, with a Confederate training camp…
Millican, TX: What the Historic Identity Includes · 8.8 mi
Millican sits in southern Brazos County, and in recent years development pressure from the Bryan-College Station area has pushed out this way. The debate over how to balance growth against the town's rural character has…
Nine Trips to the Playoffs, Still Chasing the First Win · 8.9 mi
Anderson-Shiro football has been to the playoffs nine times and has never won a playoff game. The Fighting Owls' first postseason trip came in 2013; through 2025 the all-time playoff record stands at 0-9, every exit in…
From 0-10 to Four Straight Playoff Years · 8.9 mi
Anderson-Shiro went 0-10 in 2016. Brad Hodges was hired as athletic director and head football coach in March 2017 and his own first season went 1-9 — so he owns that record too, and it makes what followed clearer. The…
The Anderson-Shiro Owls (and the Real Thing) · 8.9 mi
The school right here, Anderson-Shiro, takes the Owl as its mascot, and that mascot is well earned. An owl can turn its head about two hundred and seventy degrees, because its eyes are fixed in place, locked straight…
Millican Massacre · 9.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Millican, the site of one of the worst incidents of racial violence in Texas during Reconstruction. After the Civil War, tensions flared between newly freed African Americans and the Ku Klux Klan.…
Whiting Cemetery · 9.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Whiting Cemetery, a place that holds a powerful story of freedom and family. This ground is the final resting place of Godfrey Whiting and Martha Richardson, formerly enslaved people who built a life…
Fanthorp Inn State Historic Site · 9.0 mi · Scraped Hmdb
Imagine stagecoaches rumbling to a stop right here, their passengers weary but eager for a taste of Texas hospitality. This is Fanthorp Inn, a landmark that played a crucial role in early Texas history. Henry Fanthorp,…
Millican · 9.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Millican, a town that boomed because of the Civil War. When the fighting started in 1861, this was the northernmost railroad stop in Texas. Imagine the hustle: cotton from across North Texas and the…
Fanthorp Inn · 9.0 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Anderson, and right here is the site of the Fanthorp Inn. Built in 1834 by Henry Fanthorp, this wasn't just a house; it quickly became the heart of the community. By 1835, it was the area's first…
McDonald, James Green, Jr. · 9.0 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving near Anderson, Texas, in Grimes County, a place where politics turned violent at the dawn of the 20th century. James Green McDonald Jr., a local Democratic leader, was ousted from his judge's seat in the…
Steinhagen, Christopher Friederich Carl · 9.0 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Anderson, Texas, or maybe just passing by. Right here, in the mid-1800s, lived Christopher Friederich Carl Steinhagen, a cabinetmaker whose work is still admired today. He arrived in Texas in…
Kennard, Michael Moore · 9.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Anderson, and you're passing the site of the very first mercantile business in Grimes County. Michael Moore Kennard, a settler who arrived in Texas in 1830, established this firm. His business was…
Fanthorp Inn · 9.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Anderson, and right here is the site of the Fanthorp Inn, built in 1834. Originally a home, it was enlarged to become a hotel, serving as the region's first mercantile establishment and post…
Kenneth Lewis Anderson · 9.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Kenneth Lewis Anderson. Anderson Erected by the State of Texas In memory of Patience Burdett Wife of Kenneth Lewis Anderson Born in Shelbyville, Tennessee, Dec. 25, 1806 Died July 4, 1886 Buried at…
Anderson, TX · 9.0 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Anderson, the historic county seat of Grimes County. This town owes its existence to Henry Fanthorp, an early settler who bought land here in 1833. He built a tavern called the Fanthorp Inn, which…
A Quarter and a Lap Around the Block · 9.0 mi
Here is a bit of Anderson family lore, the kind that gets passed down at the kitchen table. The way one family tells it, their grandfather walked up to the Grimes County Courthouse, paid a quarter, twenty five cents,…
The Model T on the Farm · 9.0 mi
Here is a good campfire one, and nobody is sure it is even true. The story goes that a long while back, some bank robbers stole an old Model T, and after the getaway that car turned up abandoned on a family's farm out…
Barnes, James William · 9.0 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Grimes County, near Anderson, where James William Barnes made his mark. A religious leader and a Confederate officer, Barnes took command of the Fourth Infantry Regiment, State Troops, in August…
Dickson, David Catchings · 9.0 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Grimes County, near Anderson, where David Catchings Dickson practiced medicine and served Texas. A physician by training, Dickson was also a legislator, serving in the House of the First Texas…
Fanthorp, Henry · 9.0 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Grimes County, near Anderson. Right here, in the 1830s, English immigrant Henry Fanthorp landed in Texas. He quickly established himself as a merchant and innkeeper, building the Fanthorp Inn near…
Hutcheson, John William · 9.0 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Grimes County, Texas, and right here is where John William Hutcheson made his stand. A lawyer by trade, he was on his way to the State Senate when war broke out. Instead of taking his seat, he…
McDonald, James Green, Sr. · 9.0 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Anderson, Texas, right where James Green McDonald, Sr. made his home. He was a prominent lawyer and politician, elected to the state legislature before the Civil War. When war broke out, he was…
Raglin, Henry Walton · 9.0 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Anderson County, and right here, in the 'Mississippi Settlement,' Henry Walton Raglin married Anna Jane Magee in 1847. Raglin arrived in Texas penniless after being robbed in New Orleans, but he…
Lambert, Will · 9.0 mi · Tsha Handbook
Will Lambert, Confederate soldier, journalist, and civil servant, was born on Governors Island, New York, on February 29, 1840, the son of Robert Lambert, a soldier in Company D, First United States Infantry. Robert…
Bassett, Houston A. P. · 9.0 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Grimes County, near Anderson, where Houston A. P. Bassett made his mark. Born to poor farmers in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1857</say-as>, Bassett overcame a late start in education to…
The Only Man Grimes County Ever Hanged · 9.1 mi
The only man Grimes County ever hanged was a lawman. William Roe had been the city marshal of Huntsville, a deputy sheriff and a guard over convicts. In April of eighteen eighty six his wife Jennie died in convulsions…
The Ghost Road You're Driving On · 9.1 mi
The road you're on, State Highway 30, is much older than it looks. Long before there was pavement here, this was a stage corridor — the route running from Huntsville down toward San Antonio passed straight through Roans…
From Trail to Rail to Road · 9.1 mi
The story of Roans Prairie is a masterclass in how transportation decides the life of a town — just not the way you'd expect. Its birth came from a low-tech solution: the stage road from Huntsville to San Antonio, a…
Headquarters at the Sulphur Spa · 9.1 mi
About seven miles west of Anderson there used to be a resort. Three sulphur springs, the White, the Middle and the Black, drew health seekers starting in eighteen forty three, when William Arrington built bathhouses and…
Jailed for Treason in Anderson · 9.1 mi
In October of eighteen sixty three, Confederate authorities arrested Doctor Richard Peebles for treason. He was no ordinary suspect. He had cared for the wounded after San Jacinto, helped found Hempstead, and by…
The Sheriff They Carried Out of Anderson · 9.1 mi
In eighteen eighty two, Grimes County elected Garrett Scott sheriff alongside Jim Kennard, a Black district clerk, the start of a coalition of Black Republicans and white Populists that won the county again in the…
Bonnie and Clyde's Gunman Before an Anderson Jury · 9.1 mi
On the sixteenth of January, nineteen thirty four, Bonnie and Clyde broke Raymond Hamilton and Joe Palmer out of the Eastham prison farm, and Palmer shot a guard named Major Crowson, who died eleven days later. The…
The Man Behind the Cedar Tree · 9.1 mi
At dusk on the twenty third of October, eighteen ninety nine, two Polish farmers were riding home from Anderson in a wagon on the Longstreet road. About three quarters of a mile out of town, a man stepped from behind a…
The Rocky Creek Bridge and the Road to Kellum Springs · 9.1 mi
That little steel bridge near you is a genuine rare survivor. The Rocky Creek Bridge is a Warren pony truss, built around 1905, only about fifty feet long, a single span of four panels. Steel channels, I-beams, and…
Roans Prairie, TX · 9.1 mi
Roans Prairie is poised to become a significant transportation hub with the planned Brazos Valley station, part of the Texas Central Railway high-speed line between Dallas and Houston. Slated for completion in 2026, the…
School Downstairs, Church on Sunday, Farmers' Hall Upstairs · 9.1 mi
A mile east of here there stood a two-story frame building, and depending on the day of the week it was three different institutions. Downstairs on a weekday it was the school at Oakland. On Sunday the same room was the…
The Blacksmith's Son and the Jazz School · 9.1 mi
Isaiah Milligan Terrell was born near Anderson in January of eighteen fifty nine, the son of a blacksmith. He graduated from Straight University in New Orleans in eighteen eighty one and came home to teach in Anderson…
Doctor Kellum's White Sulphur Springs · 9.1 mi
About ten miles north of Anderson, a sulphur spring once drew Houston's best families. It was called White Sulphur Springs at first, likely after the famous resort in Virginia. The San Jacinto veteran Ben Fort Smith…
The Smallpox Standoff · 9.1 mi
In January of nineteen hundred, smallpox broke out on farms around Anderson, and the county posted quarantine guards and set up a pest house on a farm on Holland Creek, south of town. On the last day of January, the…
Meet Me at Keith at Six O'Clock · 9.1 mi
On a Sunday at the end of May, nineteen oh eight, at a preaching and dinner on the grounds up near Keith, north of Anderson, a sixteen year old named Walter Burns and a twenty two year old named Monroe Peteete bumped…
The Grave of the First Settler · 9.1 mi
This place is named for a man, and his name was Willis I. Roan. He came out of Alabama about 1841, to the headwaters of Rocky Creek, when this prairie was the far edge of a young republic. He brought a large contingent…
The Priest Who Drank From the Graveyard Well · 9.1 mi
One encyclopedia once described Anderson as predominantly Polish. About thirty Polish families arrived around eighteen seventy one, and in eighteen seventy two they held Mass in Michael Laskowski's home. In eighteen…
The Governor Texas Never Got · 9.1 mi
The town is named for Kenneth Lewis Anderson, and he was expected to be somebody. A former shoemaker and a Tennessee sheriff, he came to Texas, and by eighteen forty one he was Speaker of the House, where he promptly…
One of the Few · 9.1 mi
Anderson Buffington ran away from home as a boy, learned printing in Nashville, and came into Texas by ox wagon in January of eighteen thirty six, just in time to fight at San Jacinto. He helped found the first…
The Paper That Ran Out of Paper · 9.1 mi
In eighteen fifty four, a Baptist preacher in Anderson named George Washington Baines started, almost single handedly, the first Baptist newspaper in Texas, The Texas Baptist, printed on the press of Anderson's own…
The Stone Church Where Texas Baptists Organized · 9.1 mi
The stone Baptist church in Anderson has an outsized place in Texas history. The congregation organized in November of eighteen forty four, and in September of eighteen forty eight, when the town was still called…
Goldie Hawn Burned a Theater on Main Street · 9.1 mi
In the summer of nineteen ninety seven, Goldie Hawn came to Anderson to direct her first film. It was Hope, a TNT movie set in a small Mississippi town in nineteen sixty two, starring Christine Lahti, Jena Malone,…
Six Shooters for a Lost Cause · 9.1 mi
During the Civil War, north of Anderson, the Confederacy built a powder mill and a pistol factory. In eighteen sixty four the Dance brothers, who had been making Colt style revolvers on the coast at East Columbia, moved…
Within Sight of the Fort · 9.1 mi
A few miles northeast of Anderson, on Hadley's Prairie, Joshua Hadley built a two story house and a log fort. In the late eighteen thirties, the settlers' stories say, an Indian raid sent families running, some to…
The Night the Galveston Storm Reached Anderson · 9.1 mi
The great Galveston hurricane of September of nineteen hundred reached all the way to Anderson. The wind started up around six on Saturday evening and was at its worst around four in the morning, and folks sat up…
Fever Summer · 9.1 mi
Late in August of eighteen sixty seven, yellow fever reached Anderson. A local history says the town was entirely unprepared, and the mayor called the council together on the third of September. Across Grimes County,…
The Jailer Who Worked Alone · 9.1 mi
On the nineteenth of July, nineteen eighty seven, Wesley Alford was working alone at the Grimes County jail in Anderson. He was twenty two, a year on the job, and the only officer on duty. An inmate waiting to go to…
The Owl That Quieted the Bullet Train · 9.1 mi
Anderson-Shiro's teams are the Owls, and owls helped quiet Japan's bullet train. Owls fly almost silently, thanks to big wings that let them fly slowly, a comb of tiny serrations along the front edge of the wing, a…
How an Owl Turns Its Head · 9.1 mi
Anderson-Shiro's teams are the Owls, and an owl can turn its head about two hundred seventy degrees either way. If you whipped your neck around like that, you could tear the lining of an artery and give yourself a…
The Plum, the Potato and the French Fry · 9.1 mi
Anderson's school district is Anderson-Shiro, and Shiro got its name out of a nursery catalogue. It happens to share that name with a plum bred by the most famous plant breeder in America, Luther Burbank, who called his…
Anderson Baptist Church · 9.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Anderson, where a significant moment in Texas Baptist history unfolded. In 1844, the Anderson Baptist Church was organized right here. But it gets even bigger: in 1848, this very spot became the…
Steinhagen Log Cabin · 9.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Steinhagen Log Cabin, built sometime before the year <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1860</say-as>. <break time="400ms"/> This isn't just any old log house. <break time="400ms"/> Look…
Thompson School Building, Miss Sally · 9.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of the Miss Sally Thompson School Building, established around 1840. This was a place where students learned from the famous 'Blue-back Speller' for just three dollars a month. Today, this…
Two Different Firsts · 9.1 mi
There are two different answers to who was Grimes County's first death in the First World War. A state marker at Apolonia Cemetery, east of Anderson, gives it to Corporal Brosig Wasson of Anderson, a Marine who enlisted…
The College That Never Granted a Degree · 9.1 mi
In January of eighteen fifty two, an Episcopal priest named Charles Gillette opened Saint Paul's College in Anderson, and he ran a girls' school on the side. Anson Jones, the last president of the Republic of Texas, was…
The Contraband Trace · 9.1 mi
About eight miles north of Anderson is Gibbons Spring. A state survey of Texas springs says the Coushatta people once had a village there, with well built houses and gardens. Later it was a stagecoach stop on the old La…
The Power Plant That Fell in Seconds · 9.1 mi
Northwest of Anderson, near Carlos, the Gibbons Creek power plant burned Texas lignite from the early nineteen eighties, with its own lignite mine and a cooling lake of twenty five hundred acres, and it employed about…
The Clock That Struck One · 9.1 mi
In July of nineteen oh eight, a young man named Sam Thomas was shot from ambush in the northern part of the county as he got down to open a gate, on his way home from walking a young woman home from a revival meeting.…
Rock for the Seawall · 9.1 mi
At Roans Prairie, northeast of Anderson, the railroad ran a spur line to a rock quarry north of town, and the sand, gravel and rock that came out of it went to build the Galveston Seawall. For a while, promoters even…
The School That Burned Three Times · 9.1 mi
At Richards, east of Anderson, the Black school began around nineteen thirteen inside Saint Thomas Methodist Episcopal Church. Between nineteen twenty and nineteen thirty seven, fire destroyed three of its schoolhouses.…
The Alligator From Carlos Lake · 9.1 mi
In September of nineteen twenty six, two men named Royal Lott and Roy Smitheal shot a nine foot alligator at Carlos Lake, northwest of Anderson, and hauled it into Navasota, where hundreds of people came out to look at…
In Memory of_Colonel Benjamin Fort Smith · 9.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Anderson, Texas, a place that remembers some serious Texas history makers. Colonel Benjamin Fort Smith, a veteran of the War of 1812 and the Black Hawk War, is honored here. He was also a hero of the…
Grimes County · 9.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Anderson, the county seat of Grimes County. This area was first used by Spanish explorer Alonso de Leon way back in 1690. By 1821, Andrew Millican started the first settlement here. Henry Fanthorp…
Grimes County Courthouse · 9.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Anderson, and right here is the Grimes County Courthouse, a real beauty of Victorian architecture. It’s the third courthouse on this site, which started as a Mexican land grant way back in 1824.…
Grimes County, C.S.A. · 9.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Grimes County, a major hub for the Confederacy during the Civil War. By 1861, this area was booming with rich farmland, and 90% of the population voted for secession. They sent thousands of troops…
White Hall School · 9.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Grimes County, and just ahead is the site of the White Hall School. Opened in 1913, it was formed by combining three earlier schools. This two-story building wasn't just for classes; it was a real…
Orphans Friend Lodge No. 17 · 9.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Anderson, home to the Orphans Friend Lodge No. 17, chartered way back in 1842. This lodge pioneered education, operating the Masonic Collegiate Institute from 1846 to 1851, and later supported…
Dr. Benjamin Briggs Goodrich · 9.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the final resting place of Dr. Benjamin Briggs Goodrich, a key figure in Texas independence. Born in Virginia in 1799, he came to Texas and served as a member of the Consultation in 1835. Most…
McAlpine Cemetery · 9.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the McAlpine Cemetery, a final resting place with roots reaching back to the 1850s. Dugald McAlpine, a North Carolina native, settled this area around 1851. He eventually bought a farm called 'Alta…
Site of Piedmont Springs Resort · 9.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Anderson, and you might have missed it, but not too long ago, this area was famous for its sulphur springs. As early as 1850, Piedmont Springs Resort opened, drawing folks looking for health…

Explore Navasota on the Map

All music from Texas → Find another town Vote on city songs

Navasota, Texas

Music in Navasota

Songs About Navasota

Artists From Navasota

Rivers & Roads in Song near Navasota

Musical Heritage

The Dew Drop Inn and the True Vine RoadyGoat

Joe Tex Came Home RoadyGoat

Stubb Was Born in Navasota RoadyGoat

History of Navasota

Mance Lipscomb, the Navasota Songster RoadyGoat

The Marshal Who Tamed Navasota, Then Hunted Bonnie and Clyde RoadyGoat

The Town the Railroad Built Watched a President Roll Through It RoadyGoat

La Salle Assassination Site

La Bahia Trail

Grimes, Jesse

Hamer, Francis Augustus

Lipscomb, Mance

Sexing Technologies (Navasota)

Things to Do in Navasota

Sports in Navasota

Navasota Rattlers — Navasota — a college & pro athletic pipeline

Everything Near Navasota

Sign up for the free newsletter