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Sebastopol, Texas

Everything Sebastopol is known for

4 songs mention this city 1 artist from here

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Music in Sebastopol

Songs About Sebastopol

On My Way to You
Cody Johnson
45%
The Painter
Cody Johnson
45%
Til You Can't
Cody Johnson
45%
Wild as You
Cody Johnson
45%

Artists From Sebastopol

C
Cody Johnson
country

Rivers & Roads in Song near Sebastopol

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

Trinity River 11 songs Kickapoo Creek 4 songs U.S. Route 59 9 songs Interstate 45 8 songs Neches River 2 songs

History of Sebastopol

A Star in the Window, a Marker by the Road RoadyGoat

1945

This road carries a Blue Star Memorial Highway designation, one of a string of them across Texas. The name comes from a family tradition. When someone in a household was serving in the armed forces, the family displayed a star in the window, one star for every member serving. That was the blue star. When a service member made the ultimate sacrifice, a gold star replaced the blue. Since nineteen forty five, National Garden Clubs has carried that symbol forward with Blue Star markers. Communities can apply to sponsor new ones. The markers are cast aluminum, made by hand and custom ordered, and a single marker on its post costs more than two thousand dollars. The design is strictly controlled. The garden clubs say the markers are approved by Congress and the Department of Defense, and no club may change the colors or add any other sign or insignia. Some markers have stood for decades, braving the weather, and the clubs keep a restoration fund to repair them. For the nation's two hundred fiftieth anniversary in two thousand twenty six, National Garden Clubs counted three thousand nine hundred ninety one Blue and Gold Star memorials, and set a goal of a marker in every community.

RoadyGoat → · 4.2 mi away

Trinity, TX RoadyGoat

The most famous person to ever come out of Trinity was a man who seemed to embody its scrappy, larger-than-life East Texas spirit: Congressman Charlie Wilson. You might know him from the book or movie, 'Charlie Wilson's War.' Long before he was secretly funding Afghan rebels against the Soviets, he was a kid right here. As a teenager, his political career began when a city councilman killed his dog. The thirteen-year-old Wilson retaliated by driving dozens of voters to the polls, successfully ousting the man from office. That mix of charm, audacity, and political savvy was pure Trinity. The town also produced the acclaimed novelist William Goyen, whose dreamlike stories were deeply rooted in his East Texas upbringing here. Both men, in their own way, took the unique character of this small town and projected it onto the world stage.

5.8 mi away

Charlie Wilson's Trinity Roots RoadyGoat

It's hard to imagine the Cold War being influenced by a politician from a small town like Trinity, but that's the story of Charlie Wilson. Before he was the subject of the movie 'Charlie Wilson's War,' he was a boy here. His political career started on these streets. The legend goes that as a thirteen-year-old, his political career began with an act of revenge. After his next-door neighbor, a city official, killed his dog by feeding it crushed glass, Wilson got a driver's permit, drove ninety-six voters to the polls, and told every one of them what the man had done. The official lost the election by sixteen votes. That combination of charm and political hardball defined his career. He never forgot where he came from, and his larger-than-life personality was classic East Texas. As you look at this town, you can imagine how its scrappy, determined character helped shape the man who would go on to secretly help win the Cold War.

RoadyGoat → · 5.8 mi away

Chita Cemetery

1861

The earliest known burial in this cemetery is that of Virgil Foster, who died in 1861. According to local tradition, Peter Parker, who died the same year and is interred here, chose the site for the burial ground. Used primarily by residents of Chita, Sebastapol and other communities, the cemetery is a reflection of the area's pioneer heritage and burial customs. Tombstones bear inscriptions disclosing the military service of Civil War, World War I and World War II veterans, and mark the graves of many who died of typhoid fever, an indication of the harshness of pioneer life in the area. (2001)

Historical Marker →

Carlisle Cemetery

1867

This cemetery originally served residents of the Vaughns Mill community (later Bold Springs and then Carlisle). The settlement was named for Moses Bond, who donated property for this burial ground after coming here with family in the 1870s. The oldest marked grave here is of Civil War veteran William Cooper (d. 1867). Others interred here include area pioneers, community leaders, and two original cemetery trustees, W.E. Clark and Charity Hall. The cemetery features grave slabs, vertical stones, A false crypt and curbing. John and Alice Chessher deeded additional land in 1941 and acreage was again added in 1990. Today, the Carlisle Cemetery Association, organized in 1980, cares for this historic burial ground. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2008

Historical Marker → · 3.8 mi away

Harris, Rebert H.

1916

Rebert H. “R. H.” Harris, gospel singer, was born on March 23, 1916, in Trinity, Texas, to James and Katie Harris. He was the sixth of nine children. He grew up on a farm thirteen miles outside of Trinity in Trinity County northeast of Huntsville. The Harris family lived about 300 yards from the Eastham Prison Camp. Harris grew up listening to the mixture of spirituals and blues sung by the prisoners, and at the age of seven, he started arranging his first gospel quartet called the Friendly Four. While still a young child, Harris wrote the song “I Want Jesus to Walk Around My Bedside.” When Harris moved to Trinity to start seventh grade at Trinity Colored High School the group became known as the Friendly Gospel Singers. After tenth grade, fifteen-year-old Harris was attending seminary at Mary Allen College in Crockett, Texas, when he met Silas Roy Crain and was asked to join Crain’s Houston-based group, the Soul Stirrers , a jubilee group that sang up-tempo poppy songs such as “Down by the Riverside.” Harris agreed and joined the group in the mid-1930s as tenor and innovatively changed their sound by directing the group away from the old jubilee style to a slower, deeper, and more passionate and modern gospel style. In addition to Harris’s first tenor vocals, Crain brought in another tenor, James Medlock, who served as a second lead vocalist. Harris and Medlock traded lead vocals, using what Harris deemed “delayed time,” with one singer crooning high and sweet and the other shouting hoarse and low, creating irresistible syncopations. In the late 1930s the group moved to Chicago but spent much of their time touring the country and performing on the gospel circuit. The group was nationally known by the early 1940s. In 1947 Harris with other quartet lead singers organized the National Singing Quartets Union of America to promote their music. Harris was later named president. The Soul Stirrers recorded for Aladdin in 1948. Eventually, the extensive touring began to take its toll on Harris and in 1950, despite the Soul Stirrers being signed to the Specialty label earlier that year, he announced that he was leaving the group. Before his exit, the group recorded more than twenty songs for Specialty that appeared on their highly-rated album Shine On Me. After Harris’s departure, the group replaced him with Sam Cooke, a young singer who idolized and modeled his singing style after Harris. After leaving the Soul Stirrers, Harris formed the group the Christland Singers with ex-Soul Stirrers James Medlock and Leroy Taylor. The group recorded for the Peacock and Nashboro labels. He later sang for the Gospel Paraders, which recorded on Sam Cooke’s label, SAR Records, about 1960. He was also a member of the Masonic Quintet. However none of these groups experienced the success Harris had with the Soul Stirrers. Harris moved on to work as a florist to support his ex-wife Jeannette Harris (ex-Golden Harps singer) and their four children, but he always remained close to gospel music. In 1972 his career experienced somewhat of a revival after his performance at Radio City Music Hall, and in 1973 he sang three songs on Precious Lord: The Songs of Thomas A. Dorsey, an anthology for Columbia. In 1975 Harris recorded the album The Father of Them All with his Masonic Quintet for Nashboro Records, and in 1978 he recorded another album, Because He Lives, for his own RHJC label. This was his last recording. Due to a throat ailment, Harris was unable to sing the last several years of his life, but he remained active in the National Gospel Quartets Union. Despite his many musical projects after the Soul Stirrers, Harris will always be remembered as one of the original Soul Stirrers. In 1989 he was inducted as an early influence into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Soul Stirrers. He was also inducted as a member of the group in the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2000. Harris was married twice: first to Jeannette Harris, with whom he had four

Tsha Handbook → · 7.7 mi away

Soul Stirrers

1929

The Soul Stirrers was one of Texas’s most innovative gospel groups and pioneers of the contemporary quartet sound. It was the first gospel group to incorporate two lead singers. Their unique arrangements, which served as the basis for doo-wop and R&B, set the pace for gospel and pop vocal groups making the Soul Stirrers forefathers in the development of R&B. The musical group traces its beginnings to two different quartets. Silas Roy “Senior” Crain had been performing since the mid-1920s in Trinity, Texas, when he formed a quartet with some of the other teens in his church and named themselves the Soul Stirrers after an audience member told Crain how their music had stirred his soul. When Crain’s group fell apart, he relocated to Houston. There he met Walter La Beaux who, in September 1929, had organized the New Pleasant Green Gospel Singers with himself as tenor, Edward Allen Rundless, Jr. (second tenor), C. N. Parker (baritone), and W. R. Johnson (bass). Upon Johnson’s passing four years later, O. W. Thomas took his place and a year later, upon Parker’s passing, he was replaced by Crain. Crain joined La Beaux’s group with the condition that they change the name to the Soul Stirrers. In 1934 La Beaux left the group to preach the gospel and was replaced by A. L. Johnson. Two years later, in 1936, Jessie James (J. J.) Farley (bass) joined the group. It was this same year that Alan Lomax first recorded the group for the Library of Congress. About this time M. L. Franklin of Trinity, Texas, sang second tenor. Around 1937 first tenor Rebert H. Harris of Trinity, Texas, joined the group. Harris, who admired blues artists such as Leroy Carr, Blind Lemon Jefferson , and Lil Green, brought a new sound to the group’s old-fashioned Jubilee harmonies. Soon Crain recruited another tenor, James Medlock, who served as the second lead vocalist to complete the classic early lineup of the group. Under Harris’s direction, the group began to develop their innovative modern gospel style by creating the “swing lead” concept by combining four-part harmony and two alternating lead vocalists. His other concepts included introducing ad-libbing lyrics, singing in delayed time, repeating words in the background, and having its members move about stage in time to the music. These new ideas differentiated the Soul Stirrers from other groups, causing their popularity to quickly grow. The group moved to Chicago in the late 1930s and toured the gospel circuit across the country. In 1939 they began performing on radio alongside the Stamps-Baxter Quartet , becoming one of the superior gospel groups by the 1940s. During World War II they played in USO shows. The group’s popularity led them to perform at the White House for President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. In 1948 the Soul Stirrers made their first public recording with Aladdin, and in 1950 they were signed to Specialty Records where they recorded more than twenty tracks for their album Shine On Me, including their debut single “By and By,” which was followed by originals “I’m Still Living on Mother’s Prayer” and “In That Awful Hour.” Through the years the group was joined by other great singers such as Leroy Taylor, Julius Cheeks, T. L. Bruster (Brewster), and R. B. Robinson, founder of the Highway QCs, which drew several of the group’s lead singers. The 1950s brought many changes to the Soul Stirrers. Near the end of 1950, Harris left the group and was replaced by nineteen-year-old Sam Cooke, singer with the Highway QCs, who had idolized and modeled his style after Harris. The group also added Paul Foster to be the new second tenor (replacing Medlock). In 1951 the Soul Stirrers recorded their first album featuring Cooke, entitled Jesus Gave Me Water. Cooke’s youthfulness, angelic voice, and idol good looks brought a sexual presence to the group causing women, even in this religious setting, to faint. Their single “Peace in the Valley” featuring Cooke became a classi

Tsha Handbook → · 7.7 mi away

Taylor, Johnnie Harrison

1925

Johnnie Harrison Taylor, singer, was born in Crawfordsville, Arkansas, on May 5, 1937, to Willie Taylor and Ida Blackman. Taylor grew up in West Memphis, Arkansas, but spent much of his adult life in Texas. Inspired by blues and gospel music , he recorded with a doo-wop group called the Five Echoes during the early 1950s. While still a teenager, he joined such gospel groups as the Highway QCs and the Texas-based Soul Stirrers, in which he replaced Sam Cooke as lead singer. The Soul Stirrers, who traced their origins to Trinity, Texas, in the mid-1920s, are considered the founders of modern gospel, an urbane, secularized variation of rural church music. One of their innovations was to employ two lead singers. In 1963 Taylor was signed to Cooke's SAR label, where he recorded the hit single "Rome Wasn't Built in a Day." Although by that time he had found secular music more lucrative, Taylor's vocal style continued to reflect his strong religious roots. SAR folded after Cooke's death in 1964, and Taylor signed with Stax Records in Memphis in 1966. There he recorded his biggest hit to that time, "Who's Making Love?," which went to Number 1 on the R&B charts in 1968 and sold a million copies. This was followed by a string of bestsellers, including "Take Care of Your Homework," "I've Got to Love Somebody's Baby," "Steal Away," and "Cheaper to Keep Her." Although such big names as Otis Redding, Booker T & the MGs, and Sam & Dave all recorded with Stax, Taylor was that label's all-time best-selling artist. During the early 1970s Taylor continued to score with Top 10 R&B singles, including his second Number 1 in 1971, "Jody's Got Your Girl and Gone," and his third in 1973, "I Believe in You (You Believe in Me)." When Stax folded in 1975, Taylor went to Columbia Records, where, in 1976, he had the biggest hit of his career, "Disco Lady." The song was the first single ever to be certified platinum for two million copies. Eargasm , the album from which the single came, was banned by many radio stations because it was considered too suggestive. Nevertheless, the record's success demonstrated that Taylor's sexually-charged soul music appealed to popular audiences. Because the single was released in the middle of the 1970s disco era, Taylor found himself incorrectly tagged as a disco artist, a label he disavowed. Temporarily unable to generate additional success, Taylor left in 1982 for Beverly Glen Records, where he climbed back onto the charts with the single "What About My Love?" His final stop (1984) was at Malaco Records, where he made well-received albums throughout the 1980s and 1990s, such as This Is Your Night , Wall to Wall , and Gotta Get the Groove Back . Although his career had waned considerably, Taylor continued to tour across the country and draw respectable crowds in various R&B venues. Known as the "Philosopher of Soul," during his long career he incorporated blues, soul, pop, and funk into his repertoire. He scored eleven Top 40 hits on the Billboard pop chart, and recorded about twelve albums for Stax alone. Taylor was the recipient of the Rhythm and Blues Foundation Pioneer Award in 1996. He made his home in Duncanville, Texas, and died of a heart attack in a Dallas hospital on May 31, 2000. He was buried in Forest Hill Cemetery in Kansas City, Missouri. During his life, Taylor was married twice and openly acknowledged his paternity of six children. He died intestate, and during probate proceedings, three more individuals (one woman and two men) came forward as his children. DNA tests confirmed their claims, and Taylor’s estate was divided equally among his nine children. The case was later featured in an episode of Investigation Discovery’s documentary series The Will: Family Secrets Revealed in 2011. In 2016 Taylor’s life and career were featured in an episode of the documentary series Unsung .

Tsha Handbook → · 7.7 mi away

Texas Long Leaf Lumber Company

1907

In 1907, Thompson Brothers Lumber Company built a mill and 37-acre pond at Trinity. Texas Long Leaf Lumber Company, which started at Willard in 1912, bought Thompson Brothers’ Trinity Mill in 1922. Under management of Paul Sanderson for 22 years, the company was one of the nation’s most successful manufacturers of yellow pine and southern hardwoods. Working with forest landowners in Texas, Sanderson promoted selected cutting, reforestation, fire protection and removal of defective trees. By 1937 the mill was producing 3.5 million board feet monthly. The commercial species of lumber cut were long leaf, short leaf, and loblolly pine, oak, gum, ash, magnolia, and various other woods. The main office of Texas Long Leaf Lumber Company was the 205-acre mill site in Trinity, with additional sales offices in Houston and St. Louis. The company was one of Trinity’s largest employers, with as many as 450 employees. During World War II, production reached 140,000 board feet daily, resulting in lumber flown to Europe and Africa and the awarding of the Army-Navy “E” Award in a march 17, 1944, ceremony in Trinity. Sanderson turned to a widespread public campaign for postwar planning and perpetuation of the timber industry in Texas with emphasis on timber as a renewable natural resource. At the time of his untimely death in October 1944, Sanderson held many civic and lumber industry offices, including President of the Southern Pine Association, President of the Texas Forest Association and Chairman of the Texas Prison Board. In 1953, Texas Long Leaf timber interests totaled 252,230 acres in six East Texas counties. The closing of the mill in 1955 had a devastating impact on the local economy and ended a long chapter in the history of the community.

Historical Marker → · 8.6 mi away

Things to Do in Sebastopol

spooky 21.6 mi away
Demon's Road & Martha Chapel Cemetery

Texas's most haunted road. An 1830s cemetery on Bowden Road near Huntsville where cars rock on their own and handprints appear on windows.
quirky 22.9 mi away
Cowboy Boot House

A 35-foot-tall house shaped like a cowboy boot built from salvaged materials by artist Dan Phillips and completed in 2017. He added a matching…

Everything Near Sebastopol

149 stories, landmarks & places within ~20 miles — the same local lore RoadyGoat plays as you drive through.

  • Sebastopol · 0.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Sebastopol, a town that boomed in the late 1850s. It was named to honor a Russian naval station, and served as a major shipping point for this region. But its importance faded once…

  • Hedrick House · 2.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Hedrick House, a Victorian beauty originally built way back in 1900 for J.E. Coldwell in Huntsville. It was bought in 1919 by Walter Gibson Hedrick, who ran a local grocery and meat market. His…

  • Chita Cemetery · 2.8 mi · Historical Marker

    The earliest known burial in this cemetery is that of Virgil Foster, who died in 1861. According to local tradition, Peter Parker, who died the same year and is interred here, chose the site for the burial ground. Used…

  • Taylor Cemetery · 3.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Taylor Cemetery, the final resting place for a family who shaped this corner of Trinity County. It started in 1851 when James Durdin and his wife Sarah bought land here. Tragedy struck early; two…

  • Carlisle Cemetery · 3.8 mi · Historical Marker

    This cemetery originally served residents of the Vaughns Mill community (later Bold Springs and then Carlisle). The settlement was named for Moses Bond, who donated property for this burial ground after coming here with…

  • A Star in the Window, a Marker by the Road · 4.2 mi

    This road carries a Blue Star Memorial Highway designation, one of a string of them across Texas. The name comes from a family tradition. When someone in a household was serving in the armed forces, the family displayed…

  • Trinity, TX · 5.8 mi

    The most famous person to ever come out of Trinity was a man who seemed to embody its scrappy, larger-than-life East Texas spirit: Congressman Charlie Wilson. You might know him from the book or movie, 'Charlie Wilson's…

  • Charlie Wilson's Trinity Roots · 5.8 mi

    It's hard to imagine the Cold War being influenced by a politician from a small town like Trinity, but that's the story of Charlie Wilson. Before he was the subject of the movie 'Charlie Wilson's War,' he was a boy…

  • Sumpter loses the county seat · 5.8 mi

    There really is a town-moved-to-the-railroad story here, and it is better than the one you usually hear. It just is not about a river port. When the Houston and Great Northern built through Trinity County in 1872, the…

  • The Engineering of a Railroad Town · 5.8 mi

    The location of Trinity is not an accident of nature. It is a line on a survey map. When the Houston and Great Northern pushed north through Trinity County in 1872, it did not have to follow a river the way the old…

  • William Goyen's House of Breath · 5.8 mi

    Not everyone who left Trinity went into politics. William Goyen, born here in 1915, took the town with him in his imagination. He became a critically acclaimed novelist, and his most famous work, 'The House of Breath,'…

  • Mount Capers Cemetery · 6.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Mount Capers Cemetery near Point Blank. Sarah Washington Ricks Durdin Chrznowski donated land for this cemetery, likely in the 1860s, from her late husband's estate. The oldest legible headstone here…

Show all 149 nearby places
  • Thomas Plantation and Steamboat Landing · 6.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Thomas Plantation and Steamboat Landing. In 1854, John Richard Thomas arrived from Alabama and developed a 1060-acre plantation right here. He built wharves on the Trinity River, turning…

  • Thomas Cemetery · 6.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the old Thomas Plantation and Steamboat Landing site in Walker County. John R. Thomas settled here in 1854, but his story took a tragic turn during the Civil War. He fought for the Confederacy, only…

  • John Henley Hill House · 6.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the John Henley Hill House, a beautiful example of rural Texas architecture built between 1880 and 1882. John Hill, originally from Indiana, was encouraged to move to Texas after meeting a Colonel…

  • Civilian Conservation Corps Camp at Trinity · 7.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the Civilian Conservation Corps camp in Trinity. From 1933 to 1942, this New Deal program put young men to work on conservation projects across the nation. The Trinity camp, established…

  • Newport · 7.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Newport, founded way back in 1846 by a German immigrant named Joseph Werner. For a time, this town thrived thanks to the Trinity River, serving as a vital hub for steamboats. But as river…

  • Harris, Rebert H. · 7.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Rebert H. “R. H.” Harris, gospel singer, was born on March 23, 1916, in Trinity, Texas, to James and Katie Harris. He was the sixth of nine children. He grew up on a farm thirteen miles outside of Trinity in Trinity…

  • Soul Stirrers · 7.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    The Soul Stirrers was one of Texas’s most innovative gospel groups and pioneers of the contemporary quartet sound. It was the first gospel group to incorporate two lead singers. Their unique arrangements, which served…

  • Taylor, Johnnie Harrison · 7.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Johnnie Harrison Taylor, singer, was born in Crawfordsville, Arkansas, on May 5, 1937, to Willie Taylor and Ida Blackman. Taylor grew up in West Memphis, Arkansas, but spent much of his adult life in Texas. Inspired by…

  • Sumpter, TX · 7.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Trinity County, not far from Groveton. Right here is the site of Sumpter, a town that was once the heart of this county. Established in February of <say-as interpret-as="date"…

  • Trinity Chapel A.M.E. Church · 7.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Trinity, and right here is Trinity Chapel A.M.E. Church, a cornerstone of this community for over a century. It started as a mission church way back in 1882, with Reverend W.M. Apling as its first…

  • Boze, Calvin B. · 7.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Trinity County, the birthplace of Calvin Boze. Born in 1916, Boze became a pivotal figure in the Los Angeles rhythm-and-blues scene of the 1950s. He honed his trumpet skills and unique vocal style…

  • Trinity, TX (Trinity County) · 7.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Trinity, Texas, a town that owes its existence to a railroad and a county seat dispute. Founded in the winter of 1872-73 as Trinity Station, it quickly became a key stop on the Houston and Great…

  • Trinity and Sabine Railway · 7.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Trinity County, and right here is the story of a railroad that was meant to connect Trinity on the International and Great Northern line to the Neches and Angelina rivers. Chartered in 1881 by…

  • Glendale Cemetery · 7.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Glendale Cemetery in Trinity. It's a chronicle of this county's history, starting with graves from the 1880s. The town boomed to 1,200 people in the 1890s thanks to lumber and orchards, but declined…

  • Old Red Schoolhouse · 7.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Trinity's very first schoolhouse, a log cabin built way back in 1872. The building you see here, affectionately known as 'Old Red,' is a brick structure that started construction in 1911…

  • McDonald, Ranald · 7.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of a pioneering power plant in Trinity. Ranald McDonald, who settled here after <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1876</say-as>, kept bees and buggies on his land along the Trinity…

  • First United Methodist Church of Trinity · 7.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the First United Methodist Church of Trinity. This congregation got its start way back in 1872, the same year the city itself was founded! Reverend John Woolam, the first itinerant…

  • Dorcas Mills Memorial Church · 7.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the Dorcas Mills Memorial Church, which began life way back in 1876 as the Trinity Baptist Church in Christ. Organized by Reverend D.S. Snodgrass, this congregation was a cornerstone of…

  • Glendale Congregational Methodist Church · 7.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the Glendale Congregational Methodist Church, organized in 1917. The congregation met in donated buildings before erecting their own in the 1930s with volunteer work. Through local…

  • Waco, Beaumont, Trinity & Sabine Railroad · 8.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the former hub of a railroad with a name longer than its reach. The Waco, Beaumont, Trinity & Sabine Railway, founded in 1924, was meant to connect big cities but never got farther than the East…

  • Barnes, Jacob Pope & Elizabeth Ann · 8.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're cruising through Trinity, and right here is the story of Jacob Pope and Elizabeth Ann Barnes. They came to Texas from Mississippi in 1866, settling in Trinity just six years later. Jacob opened a mercantile store…

  • Cedar Grove Cemetery · 8.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Cedar Grove Cemetery, a final resting place for Trinity's earliest residents. The first documented burial here was Phebe A. Martin, back in 1875. But this ground holds many more stories, especially…

  • I.N. Parker House · 8.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the I.N. Parker House, built around 1888. This was home to Isaac Newton Parker, a Confederate Civil War veteran, and his family. He and his first wife, Mary, raised eight children within these walls.…

  • Texas Long Leaf Lumber Company · 8.6 mi · Historical Marker

    In 1907, Thompson Brothers Lumber Company built a mill and 37-acre pond at Trinity. Texas Long Leaf Lumber Company, which started at Willard in 1912, bought Thompson Brothers&#x2019; Trinity Mill in 1922. Under…

  • Jones, Isaac · 9.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the land where Isaac Jones carved out a life in Texas. Born way back in 1793 in Mississippi, Jones arrived here in 1834, snagging a Mexican land grant on the Trinity River. He even served a few…

  • Riverside Swinging Bridge · 9.4 mi · Scraped Hmdb

    You're near a real piece of Texas railroad history: the Riverside Swinging Bridge. Back in 1904, the International and Great Northern Railroad built this bridge to carry trains across the Trinity River, connecting…

  • Broyles Chapel Missionary Baptist Church · 9.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving near Riverside, and look to your right for the site of Broyles Chapel. Following the Civil War, James Broyles, a local businessman, donated land for an African American church. It was named Broyles…

  • Riverside · 9.7 mi · Historical Marker

    Hey road trippers! You're cruising through Walker County, passing the spot where the town of Riverside sprang to life. Back in 1872, landowners here donated land, timber, and rock to get the Houston & Great Northern…

  • Bethea Creek · 9.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Walker County, and that creek you just crossed? It's named Bethea Creek. The Bethea family, John and Elizabeth, were early settlers here, arriving in the 1830s. John was more than just a farmer;…

  • Barker, Eugene Campbell · 9.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Walker County, just outside Riverside, where Eugene Campbell Barker was born in 1874. He wasn't born into wealth, starting his career as a blacksmith after his father died. But Barker's real…

  • Riverside, TX (Walker County) · 9.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Riverside, a town born from the railroad and the river. Back in 1872, the Houston and Great Northern Railroad laid tracks and founded this spot right on the west bank of the Trinity River. Its…

  • When the River Became a Lake · 9.9 mi

    Look around Riverside, and you’ll feel the presence of water. But for the town’s first century, that water was just the flowing Trinity River. Everything changed in the 1960s. Downstream, the Trinity River Authority…

  • A floodplain forest becomes an aquatic habitat · 9.9 mi

    The massive body of water just south of Riverside, Lake Livingston, isn’t a natural feature. It’s a feat of civil engineering designed to solve one of Texas’s biggest problems: water supply. Built between 1966 and 1969,…

  • The Town the Train Built · 9.9 mi

    As you cross the railroad tracks in Riverside, take a second to realize you're crossing the town's whole reason for being. Before 1872 this was undeveloped land on the west bank of the Trinity River, thirteen miles…

  • Riverside, TX · 9.9 mi

    Riverside has always been a place shaped by the Trinity River. It gave the town its name, and it’s always been both a blessing and a challenge. We're all aware of the old stories of the big flood way back when, but just…

  • From Ferry to Freeway · 9.9 mi

    The bridge you cross over the Trinity near Riverside is the newest chapter in a long story of connection. Riverside itself was put here by transportation: the Houston and Great Northern Railroad founded the town on the…

  • Coushatta Indians · 10.2 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through East Texas, and right here, you're passing through the lands once home to the Coushatta people. These Muskogean speakers migrated from Alabama in the late 1700s, eventually settling along the…

  • Battise Village · 10.2 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through what used to be a major hub for the Coushatta people in the 1830s and 40s. Right here, near present-day Onalaska, was Battise Village, a key settlement on the Trinity River. It was so important,…

  • Pakana Muskogee Indians · 10.2 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Polk County, near Onalaska, where the Pakana Muskogee Indians established a village back in 1834. They were a branch of the Creek nation, migrating from Alabama and Louisiana. Their leader, John…

  • Thornton Church Community · 10.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Trinity County, near Groveton. In 1858, James D. Thornton arrived with his family, joining friends and relatives who had already settled here from Mississippi. They established a farming…

  • Onalaska, TX · 10.2 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Onalaska, a town whose first boom was built on lumber and a railroad. Around 1905, a lumberman named William Carlisle developed this area, naming it after another mill town he operated. The…

  • The Town That Was Reborn by Water · 10.5 mi

    The Point Blank you see today owes its existence to a monumental change that happened in the late 1960s. For a century, this was a small town on a river. But downstream, the Trinity River Authority and the City of…

  • Engineering a Lake, Remaking a River · 10.5 mi

    The vast expanse of water at Point Blank, Lake Livingston, isn't a natural feature. It's a massive feat of civil engineering. In the 1960s, the City of Houston needed a reliable water source for its booming population.…

  • What's in a Name? · 10.5 mi

    As you pass through town, you might wonder about that name: Point Blank. It sounds like it ought to come with a gunfight attached, and locals will happily tell you it's the range of a pistol shot across the old ferry…

  • Point Blank, TX · 10.5 mi

    The name of Point Blank, Texas, has an interesting origin. It was named Blanc Point by Florence Dissiway, a French woman from Alabama, who worked as a governess for a local family around 1850. The name was later changed…

  • The Town Beneath the Lake · 10.7 mi

    As you drive along the shores of Lake Livingston, you're looking at the very thing that saved Onalaska. In the early nineteen hundreds, this was a bustling lumber town, but the boom didn't last. The sawmill was…

  • Engineering Lake Livingston · 10.7 mi

    The lake that defines modern Onalaska is a monumental feat of civil engineering. To create it, the Trinity River Authority had to build the Livingston Dam, completed in 1969. This isn't a towering concrete wall like the…

  • Onalaska, TX · 10.7 mi

    The name Onalaska has an interesting origin, derived from 'Oonalaska,' a rendering of Unalaska in the Aleutian Islands used by Scottish poet Thomas Campbell in his 1799 poem 'The Pleasures of Hope.' The spelling…

  • The Sawmill that Built a Town · 10.7 mi

    Imagine a mill town that goes up and comes back down inside of a decade. That was Onalaska. The lumberman William Carlisle developed the town around 1905 and named it for an older mill town he ran up in Onalaska,…

  • The Lake That Supplies Houston · 10.7 mi

    Onalaska sits right on Lake Livingston, and this lake didn't happen naturally -- it was built, finished in 1971, specifically to keep Houston's taps running. The Trinity River Authority owns and runs it under contract…

  • The Wobbly, Bobbly, Turnover & Stop · 10.7 mi

    Every mill town needed a railroad, and Onalaska's came up out of Trinity County in 1907. It was chartered as the Beaumont and Great Northern, and it ran a line that never got anywhere near Waco or Beaumont despite the…

  • Onalaska First United Methodist Church · 10.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Onalaska, a community that owes its start to the Carlisle-Pennel Lumber Company. In 1908, the company's owner helped establish this Methodist church, with lumber company superintendent L.O.…

  • A Homesick Governess Names a Point · 11.3 mi

    You are rolling through Point Blank, Texas, and the name practically dares you to think about firearms. Resist it, because the truth here is gentler and a good deal older. In the eighteen fifties a Frenchwoman named…

  • The Gun Term That Only Sounds Related · 11.3 mi

    You are driving through Point Blank, Texas, a town whose name only borrowed the shooting phrase by accident. That phrase has its own tangent worth the detour, though, so here it is: where does point blank actually come…

  • How Blanc Point Slipped Into English · 11.3 mi

    Right here in Point Blank, Texas it is worth slowing down on how Blanc Point became Point Blank, because the flip is a small linguistics lesson. In French an adjective usually follows its noun, so white point would more…

  • The Governor Buried Down the Road · 11.3 mi

    Long before that homesick governess arrived, the ground here at Point Blank, Texas already held a governor. George Tyler Wood, the second man to lead the state of Texas, chose a site near present-day Point Blank and…

  • The Lake That Rewrote the Town · 11.3 mi

    For most of its life Point Blank, Texas was a farming settlement of well under a hundred people. Then the water came. In nineteen sixty-nine crews finished Livingston Dam on the Trinity River just to the south, and Lake…

  • One Name, The Whole Thread · 11.3 mi

    So pull on this one odd Point Blank, Texas name and look at everything it holds. It starts with a homesick Frenchwoman calling a river bend white point in her own language. It runs through a centuries-old gunnery phrase…

  • Boontown Cemetery · 11.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Boontown Cemetery, established in the 1880s on land granted to 'Buck' Smith. It served the Boontown community, founded by Whitney Alston Boone around the Civil War. Today, it's the only…

  • Ben-Ash · 11.4 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through what is now San Jacinto County, not far from Point Blank. Right here, in the first half of the 1800s, lived Ben-Ash, chief of the Coushatta village called Battise. He was a key figure in Republic…

  • Wood, George Tyler · 11.4 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through what is now San Jacinto County, near Point Blank, on the Trinity River. This was the home of George Tyler Wood, a soldier, a legislator, and the second governor of Texas. He arrived here in 1839…

  • Wood, Martha Evans Gindrat · 11.4 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through East Texas, near Point Blank, where Martha Evans Gindrat Wood made her home. Born in Georgia in 1809, she was a silk expert who planned to continue her thriving business in Texas. After moving…

  • Point Blank, TX · 11.4 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Point Blank, a community with a name that sounds like a gunshot, but its origin is far more genteel. Back in the 1850s, a French governess named Florence Dissiway settled here. She called this…

  • Site of the Home of George Thomas Wood · 11.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the former home of George Thomas Wood, a true Texas hero. Born in Georgia in 1795, Wood made his mark right here in the Lone Star State. He served as a Colonel in the Mexican War, then as a Senator…

  • The Robert Tod Robinson House · 12.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Robert Tod Robinson House, a home built in 1857 by a planter who brought architectural ideas all the way from Alabama. It started as a log house with wide verandas on two floors, sitting on high…

  • Oakhurst Center Hill Church and Cemetery · 12.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Oakhurst Center Hill Church and Cemetery. Five successive buildings have served as community worship centers here since the 1830s, originally called Hibbetts Church. The land for the…

  • George Washington Carver School · 12.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the George Washington Carver School in Groveton. Originally the Groveton Colored Community School, it operated underfunded until 1900 when a new building was erected. By 1956, it was…

  • Oakhurst, TX · 12.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Oakhurst, a town that owes its very existence to the smell of sawdust and the hum of machinery. Back in 1899, the Columbia Lumber Company set up a massive sawmill right here, transforming this…

  • Trinity Valley Southern Railway · 12.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through San Jacinto County, not far from Oakhurst, where the Trinity Valley Southern Railway once tried to connect Dodge to Cold Springs. Chartered in 1901, this short line was mostly a lumber hauler for…

  • Texas HS Baseball Leaders 2026: Centerville (Groveton) · 12.4 mi

    Centerville (Groveton, TX) placed on the 2A Texas high school baseball stat leaderboards for the 2026 season: Kolt Larsen (0.571 avg, 3 HR).

  • Trinity County Seats · 12.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Trinity County, and right here is a marker about how this county picked its county seats. It's a story of fires and theft! It all started in 1850 when the county was organized. The first seat was…

  • Trinity County Courthouse · 12.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Groveton, the county seat of Trinity County. It all started in 1881 when the railroad arrived and the town was laid out. The very next year, voters picked it as their new government center. The…

  • Groveton · 12.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Groveton, a town born from trees and railroad ties. It all started in 1882 when the Trinity County Lumber Company set up a massive sawmill, right here, near a grove of black jack oaks. Soon after,…

  • Site of the Town of Sumpter · 12.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Sumpter, the original county seat of Trinity County. Land was granted here in 1850, and the town was officially laid out in 1855. Although it was incorporated in 1862, a courthouse fire…

  • Flat Prairie Congregational Methodist Church · 12.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the Flat Prairie Congregational Methodist Church. Organized in the late 1890s, it was officially reorganized in 1912 and held its first meetings in a local schoolhouse. The congregation…

  • William Rolfe Kelley and Dinah Rush · 12.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Oakhurst area, where William Rolfe Kelley and Dinah Rush built a family in the 19th century, despite laws banning their union. Kelley, born in Virginia in 1832, came to Texas and became an…

  • Camp Huntsville, World War II Prisoner of War Camp · 12.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Camp Huntsville, a World War II prisoner of war camp completed right here in 1942. It was one of the very first POW camps built in the United States during the war. Designed for 3,000…

  • Archie, Ernest Alvin, Jr. [Tom Archia] · 12.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through East Texas, maybe not too far from Groveton, where jazz saxophonist Ernest Archie Jr. was born in 1919. He became known as Tom Archia, and his father even changed the family name to Archia to…

  • Hill, Ernestine [Jean Howard] · 12.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through what was once Trinity County, near Groveton, where Ernestine Hill was born around 1910. She'd later become the Hollywood actress and photographer Jean Howard. After her mother died in 1925, she…

  • Bell, Catherine Atkinson [Kate] · 12.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Trinity County, and right here is Groveton, the birthplace of Kate Atkinson Bell. She spent 47 years in education, starting as an elementary teacher in Houston and rising to assistant…

  • First Methodist Church of Groveton · 12.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Groveton, founded in 1882. Just a year later, in 1883, the Methodist congregation started here as a mission church. The original building burned down, but a new one went up in 1914, featuring…

  • Groveton, TX · 12.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Groveton, a town born from the timber industry. It all started in 1881, when the Trinity County and Sabine Pass Land and Railway Company laid track and built a lumber mill. They plotted a…

  • West, James Marion · 12.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Trinity County, Texas, the stomping grounds of James Marion West. Born in Mississippi in 1871, his family settled near Groveton in 1880. West got his start in business here, first in a drugstore,…

  • Glenwood Cemetery · 12.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Glenwood Cemetery, a place that's been serving the people of Groveton for over a century. This town itself sprang up fast in 1882, becoming the county seat that same year. But by 1896, residents…

  • Capt. Benjamin I. Harper · 14.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site where Captain Benjamin I. Harper, a veteran of Texas independence, once farmed and is traditionally buried. Harper arrived in Texas in 1833, working as a schoolmaster before heading off to…

  • Mount Zion Cemetery · 14.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Mount Zion Cemetery near Point Blank. This land was granted by John R. Johnson in 1850 to Mount Zion Methodist Church. The church building is long gone, but descendants hold a yearly homecoming here…

  • The Fight for the Courthouse · 14.1 mi

    The 1914 Trinity County Courthouse in the center of town is more than a building; it's a trophy from a classic Texas county seat war. In 1881 the county seat sat in a small place called Pennington. But the I&GN was…

  • The Wobble, Bobble, Turnover & Stop · 14.1 mi

    Groveton was born a railroad town, but the quirkiest line in this country ran just down the road: the Waco, Beaumont, Trinity and Sabine Railway. Locals gave it a nickname that fit — the 'Wobble, Bobble, Turnover and…

  • A School Built on Hope · 14.1 mi

    Out along what's now Martin Luther King Road, near the old neighborhood folks called Red Town, there used to be a school that mattered more than any building in Groveton. In the early 20th century, public education for…

  • From Groveton to the Super Bowl · 14.1 mi

    Every small town dreams of a hometown hero, and for Groveton, that hero is Lane Johnson. As you pass the high school, imagine the football field on a Friday night. That's where Johnson, now a Super Bowl champion and one…

  • A mill town that won a county · 14.1 mi

    The town of Groveton didn't grow organically; it was engineered. In 1881 this was just a patch of forest, named for a stand of blackjack trees. Then the Trinity County and Sabine Pass Land and Railway Company put a…

  • Thompson, Helen Kerr · 14.2 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Trinity County, near what was once Woodlake. Right here, a woman named Helen Kerr Thompson turned 12,000 acres of forest land into a model agricultural community. After World War I, she took her…

  • Nogalus Prairie, TX · 14.2 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Nogalus Prairie, also known as Nogallis Prairie, Nogalus, and Prairie View, is a farming community on Farm Road 357 thirteen miles northeast of Groveton in northeastern Trinity County. The community, originally known as…

  • Sebastopol, TX · 14.2 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Sebastopol, a farming community also known as Bartholomew, on Farm roads 355 and 356, fourteen miles southwest of Groveton in southwestern Trinity County, was an important Trinity River port in the late antebellum Texas…

  • East Fork of the San Jacinto River · 14.2 mi

    The East Fork of the San Jacinto River runs sixty-nine miles southeast out of the piney woods near Dodge, in Walker County, down to Lake Houston, where it meets the West Fork. The San Jacinto name honors Saint Hyacinth,…

  • Akin Hill · 14.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Akin Hill, a landmark on the old Colony Road. Thomas Akin, a horse trader and singing teacher, settled here in 1854 with his wife Ruth. While Thomas served as a courier for Confederate General John…

  • Alford's Bluff · 14.2 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Trinity County, and right here, you're passing near where Alford's Bluff once stood. It was a cotton plantation and a vital river landing on the Trinity River, established by George G. Alford back…

  • Pennington College · 14.2 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Pennington, in Trinity County, where a school with a lot of names once stood. It started as Pennington College in 1866, offering collegiate-level courses alongside primary and academic studies. It…

  • North Cedar Community · 14.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through what used to be North Cedar Community, a place that started with Abner Womack and his family in 1856. Imagine Benjamin and Susan Burke, sleeping in tree houses, fearing animal attacks while their…

  • Site of the Town of Sumpter · 14.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Sumpter, the first county seat of Trinity County. Land was granted here back in 1850, and by 1854, it was the official county seat. The town was laid out in 1855 and even incorporated in…

  • Glendale, TX · 14.2 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Glendale is on State Highway 94 eleven miles west of Groveton in western Trinity County. The region was first settled before the Civil War ; the large antebellum Tullos Plantation was located nearby. During the late…

  • Pennington, TX · 14.2 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Pennington, originally Tyler or Tyler's Prairie, is off U.S. Highway 287 near the Davy Crockett National Forest in northwestern Trinity County on the Trinity-Houston county line. By the 1990s the community was also…

  • Trinity County · 14.2 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Trinity County, named for the river that forms its southeastern border. This area was home to Native Americans for thousands of years before European explorers arrived. But it wasn't until the…

  • Woodlake, TX (Trinity County) · 14.2 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through southeastern Trinity County, heading towards Woodlake. This community really got going in the early 1880s, thanks to the Thompson and Tucker Lumber Company. It went by a few names – Willard, Old…

  • Apple Springs, TX · 14.2 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Apple Springs, also known as May Apple Springs, is at the junction of State Highway 94 and Farm roads 357 and 2501, fifteen miles northeast of Groveton in northeastern Trinity County. The community was established after…

  • Saron, TX (Trinity County) · 14.2 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Saron, a farming community just off State Highway 94 and eight miles west of Groveton in western Trinity County, grew up around a sawmill established by William Cameron and Company in 1883. Several sources speculate…

  • Chalk Cemetery · 14.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Chalk Cemetery, a final resting place named for the very ground it sits on. Founded in the 1870s on land owned by Lacy Harrington, it holds the earliest documented burial of Civil War veteran Barney…

  • Dodge · 14.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Dodge, a town born from the railroad. Back in 1872, the Houston and Great Northern Railroad laid tracks right here. W.J. Johnson donated land, but only if they built a station. So, a new…

  • Holly Cemetery · 15.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving near the Houston-Trinity county line, passing Holly Cemetery. Oral tradition says William and Harriet Brannen set aside land here for a church and graveyard, with burials possibly dating back to 1863. The…

  • Site of Raven Hill · 15.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Raven Hill, the plantation home of General Sam Houston. The Cherokee Indians called him 'The Raven' and he built this home in 1844. He sold it sometime before 1860. Imagine Sam Houston…

  • Pleasant Grove Baptist Church · 15.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Pleasant Grove Baptist Church, established in 1862 by J.M. Russell and five charter members. The congregation's first building, located about two miles west, hosted Baptist Association…

  • Bethel Baptist Church · 16.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Bethel Baptist Church. Built 1901 for congregation organized Jan. 6, 1849, by Rev. J.W.D. Creath, among settlers from Louisiana.

  • West Tempe Cemetery · 16.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the West Tempe Cemetery, established on August 24, 1883. It was recognized as a Historic Texas Cemetery in 2002.

  • Site of Cincinnati · 17.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Cincinnati, a town that once thrived on the Trinity River. Founded in 1838 by James C. De Witt, this was an important shipping point, bustling with activity. But by 1853, Cincinnati was…

  • A Livingston Soldier Who Almost Made It Home · 18.1 mi

    In Livingston, a section of U.S. Highway One Ninety is the PFC Stuart W. Moore Memorial Highway. Stuart Westley Moore was a native Texan and a graduate of Livingston High School. A Texas House resolution remembers him…

  • Georgia and Arkansas Freedmen Built Fodice · 18.5 mi

    Four miles west of Pennington, the community of Fodice was founded after the Civil War by freedmen who had migrated from Georgia and Arkansas, looking for land of their own in southern Houston County. They built a…

  • Behind the 'Walls' · 18.6 mi

    As you near downtown Huntsville, you can't miss the imposing red brick structure of the Huntsville Unit, known universally as 'The Walls.' Opened in 1849, it is the oldest prison in Texas and the very heart of the…

  • Texas Prison Rodeo · 18.6 mi

    Every Sunday in October, for fifty-five years, the toughest ticket in East Texas was outside the walls of the Huntsville Unit. The Texas Prison Rodeo started in 1931 — a prison manager's idea to fix the system's…

  • The House That Looks Like a Boat · 18.6 mi

    One of the strangest houses in Texas sits right here in Huntsville. It's called the Steamboat House, and you'll find it on the grounds of the Sam Houston Memorial Museum. Dr. Rufus W. Bailey built it in 1858 — not a…

  • Peckerwood Hill: The Prison Cemetery · 18.6 mi

    Tucked into the east side of Huntsville, about a mile southeast of the Walls Unit on Bowers Boulevard, lies one of the most somber places in Texas: the Captain Joe Byrd Cemetery. For generations, inmates called it…

  • The Science of a Working Forest · 18.6 mi

    As you drive through the tall pines surrounding Huntsville, you’re in the Sam Houston National Forest, but this isn't an untouched wilderness—it’s a massive, ongoing science project. By the early 1900s, commercial…

  • Huntsville, TX · 18.6 mi

    Huntsville's history is deeply intertwined with the life of Sam Houston, a prominent figure in American history. Houston, who served as the first and third president of the Republic of Texas, Governor of Texas, and U.S.…

  • Fodice Community School · 18.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the Fodice Community School. It began in the 1880s, first meeting in a local church before a schoolhouse was built around 1900. The building saw improvements in the late 1930s and served…

  • First Baptist Church of Lovelady · 18.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the First Baptist Church of Lovelady. Baptist activity here began with a union Sunday school around 1876, and a formal congregation was mentioned by 1879. The church shared its first…

  • Texas HS Baseball Leaders 2026: Lovelady (Lovelady) · 19.0 mi

    Lovelady (Lovelady, TX) placed on the 2A Texas high school baseball stat leaderboards for the 2026 season: Jaxon Duncan (2 HR); Ryder Lovell (2 HR).

  • C.R. Rich Building · 19.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the C.R. Rich Building in Lovelady, completed in 1906. Charles Rufus Rich built this place as a general store downstairs and his home upstairs. You can still see some of the original Italianate…

  • Archie Adams · 19.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Houston County, passing the site of where Archie Adams settled in 1873. A Confederate veteran, farmer, and store owner, Adams also served as an election judge and county commissioner. His detailed…

  • First United Methodist Church of Lovelady · 19.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Lovelady, where this United Methodist Church was organized back in 1872, the same year the town was founded. Services were held in the Presbyterian sanctuary at this site for years before the…

  • Lovelady · 19.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Lovelady, a town born from the railroad boom. Back in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1872</say-as>, investors with the Houston and Great Northern Railroad laid tracks through land granted…

  • Steele's Academy · 19.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Steele's Academy, a place that once drew students from all over. It was named for its founder and principal, D. W. Steele, who brought his New Hampshire Academy experience here. Imagine…

  • Mount Pleasant C.M.E. Church · 19.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Mount Pleasant C.M.E. Church. Founded in 1885 on land donated by T.H. Nelms, this congregation was a center for worship and education, with the Fodice school meeting in the church…

  • Site of Center Grove School · 19.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Houston County, passing the site of the former Center Grove School. This school, formed by the merger of two others in 1925, served the African American community. By 1950, it was a source of…

  • Pennington Baptist Church · 19.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Pennington, where a church has been a cornerstone of the community for over a century. It all started back in 1860 with eight settlers who founded Salem Baptist Church, with Elder R.A. Clifton as…

  • Thomas Nelms Mainer · 19.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Lovelady, home of the Rev. Thomas Nelms Mainer. Born right here in 1877, Mainer edited the local newspaper before heading to seminary. He served as a pastor in the area, but his impact didn't stop…

  • Lovelady Evergreen Cemetery · 19.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Lovelady Evergreen Cemetery, a community graveyard that dates back to the 1870s. The first recorded burial here was Parham Bridges Baker in 1878, and by 1885, about 20 people were laid to rest in…

  • Antioch Cemetery · 19.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Antioch Cemetery, originally Neville's Prairie Cemetery. It was renamed in 1890 when the community became known as Antioch. The earliest documented burial here is David Houston, who died in 1870. The…

  • Holley, Albert · 20.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Houston County, passing the land where Albert Holley and his family put down roots. In 1857, Holley, his mother, and brothers migrated from Alabama. While his family traveled by boat, Albert drove…

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