Texas - Day 95 - back across the coast to Port Arthur

Sea Rim State Park, Sabine Pass

Saturday, 6 February 2021

During much of the evening and part of the night I kept hearing a soft "thump thump" noise.  For the life of me I couldn't figure out where the sound was coming from or what it was.  It wasn't until I was getting the cabin ready for us to get on the road this morning that I found one of Lily's toys that she'd buried in the dog beds and forgotten about and I'd unearthed for her - apparently she'd been hitting it around on the upper bunk all that time.

today's route

On the road

Much of today's drive covered the same route as yesterday's, but I stopped in different places and saw some very different things.

I passed through the town of West Columbia, pop. 3,905, where I saw a sign I'd missed yesterday that said it was the site of the first capitol of Texas.  In 1835, the first Congress of the Republic of Texas was convened here, known then as Columbia.  (And yes, there's an East Columbia, though it's unincorporated.)

Angleton

I'd passed through Angleton, "Where the Heart Is," pop. 18,862, yesterday, but today I stopped to see the county courthouse, which turned out to be a little confusing.

Brazoria County Courthouse
in Angleton

The sign on this much newer building, which
is attached to the courthouse (above left),
proclaims this building to be the
Brazoria County Courthouse.

I finally decided the building above left must be the former courthouse and the one above right must be the new one.  But no, the one on the left is the real current courthouse, built in 1940.  The one on the right is the courthouse annex, built in 1975.  Why couldn't they just say "annex" on it so visitors would know, or at least leave off that sign proclaiming the annex to be the courthouse?  Weird.

Brazoria County, by the way, was named for the Brazos River, which flows through the county, as well as a good part of the rest of central Texas.  And I'm not even going to ask why the county seat of Brazoria County is in the town of Angleton instead of the town of Brazoria.

Because I walked the dogs while we were here, I found a really elaborate veterans memorial.

veterans memorial

The memorial includes a central focus, flanked by 2 statues, and 6 2-sided panels each representing a branch of the US military.

central focus
(details below)

left side, above

right side, above

statue on the left side

inscription at base of statue

statue on the right side

inscription at base of statue

Then there were 2 semicircles, each including 3 memorials:

US Navy - side 1

Navy - side 2

US Army - side 1

Army - side 2

US Merchant Marines - side 1

Merchant Marines - side 2

US Air Force - side 1

Air Force - side 2

US Coast Guard - side 1

Coast Guard - side 2

US Marine Corps - side 1

Marine Corps - side 2

In a circle inside these memorials was a series of quotes from a surprising variety of sources:

Patrick Henry

Thomas Jefferson

Herbert Hoover

Samuel Johnson

William T. Sherman

Robert E. Lee

Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Harry S Truman

George Orwell

Nathan Hale

George Patton

Some of them are hard to read, thanks to last night's rain and this morning's very low ceiling and high humidity.  Actually, I don't think some of these are at all appropriate for a military memorial, but I guess reasonable minds can disagree.

Anahuac

About 90 miles down the road I came to Anahuac (pronounced AN-a-wack).  Established in 1831, with a population of 2,339, Anahuac claims the title of the Alligator Capital of Texas, a designation by the TX Legislature because the 'gators outnumber the humans 3:1.  Of course, it's the Home of the Texas Gatorfest every fall.

Anahuac also bills itself as the Cradle of Texas Independence.

This mural isn't much clearer than the history behind it.  In 1832, Texas was still very much a part of Mexico, which was led by President Bustamante, who kept all decision-making in Mexico City - not popular in the hinterlands.  In a sort of civil war, Mexican forces, including some under Santa Anna, were challenging this government.  

That same year, several enslaved men escaped from Louisiana to Texas (slavery was illegal in Mexico), where they were protected by the local (Mexican) military.  Several Texans, including William B. Travis, later revered as a Father of Texas, unsuccessfully attacked the military to return the slaves to their former owners.

The local commander reported to Mexico City that settlers were rebelling, and a force of 400 soldiers was sent to put down the rebellion.  The Texans heard about a recent military victory by Santa Anna, and redefined their own efforts as being in support of Santa Anna and opposing Bustamante.  The "Turtle Bayou Resolutions" mentioned in the mural was a list of mushy statements along those lines.  When the soldiers arrived from Mexico, the settlers showed them these statements, which apparently convinced the soldiers there was no problem here, and they went back south.

For the life of me, I can't see any connection between this incident and the actions that brought about Texas's independence a few years later, but maybe Anahuac wants to be famous for something besides alligators.  Here's the Wikipedia page I got this information from, but I didn't find it very well written so good luck.   https://en.wikipedia.org/Turtle-Bayou-Resolutions

Speaking of murals, about a block away I saw another one that consisted entirely of a drawing like this:

and a caption that read: The Only Real Corona.  Okay, not much clearer to me than the other mural, but I'm guessing it's a statement on whether the coronavirus is real and, if so, isn't much more reality-based than the other one.  Who lives in this town anyway?

Actually, I got an answer at the local grocery store when I asked the cashier if she liked living here.  She said Anahuac is "the place that God forgot."  (I swear.)  She said it's a good place to raise babies and to retire, but you have to leave in between those periods to make a living.

One thing I noticed as I was driving around town was that very few drivers were willing to move over for emergency vehicles - real ones, like an ambulance and fire truck.  So either folks are really deaf here or they've got strange ideas about the importance of these functions.  If they're ever so unfortunate as to need an ambulance some day, they're gonna be hoping other drivers are more generous than they are.

On the other hand, Anahuac is home to Harvest Grain Mills, according to a sign I saw.  Their website says it's a family business that grows, mills and sells 2 kinds of rice.  Too bad they don't do more advertising locally - at least more information on their sign - because I imagine I could have gotten some in the grocery store if I'd known.  Here's their website.   https://www.harvestgrainmills.com

Anahuac has another sort of claim to fame, being the county seat.

Chambers County Courthouse
in Anahuac

building details

more details

 

And finally, this is the home of the Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge, well known as a prime birdwatching place.  It was established in 1963 to protect and manage coastal and marsh areas to benefit migrating and nesting a wide variety of birdlife.  It's also a part of the Chenier Plain National Wildlife Refuges Complex, which I hadn't heard of but includes 3 Texas counties and 3 Louisiana parishes along 200 miles of coastline.  I stopped at the visitor center to get more information, but sadly found it closed.  I supposed it's thanks to that stupid virus that doesn't exist (more likely to the stupid people who act like it doesn't exist).

Back on the road

Coming into Port Arthur, I passed "Taylor's Seafood and Washateria."  I swear.  Both businesses were in the same small building.  I just couldn't help getting an image of my laundry smelling like shrimp.

Port Arthur, pop. 53,818, has lots of huge petroleum processing plants - I saw one for Valero and one for Chevron Phillips.

I ran into more direction problems here.  First was a highway sign that told me to turn left right here for the road I wanted, but after driving for miles of poorly signed highway I learned I shouldn't have turned left right there, but instead a half mile farther down the road.  And when I got to the right place I found that Google had (once again) told me the road would be labeled as US 87 E(ast) when in reality it's labeled US 87 S(outh).  That caused me more problems.  And a little farther on, I found Google had failed to mention 10 miles of roadway between the turn at Sabine Pass and the state park.  A frustrating end to today's drive.