This monument lives up to the Texas image

La Porte, TX

I want to thank Vancouver friend, Dane, for suggesting I make sure to stop at the San Jacinto Battlefield Monument. I would possibly have missed it if he hadn’t dropped the tip.

”Everything is bigger in Texas” is what you’ve heard about this state, and the monument to the San Jacinto Battlefield in La Porte, TX where the independence of Texas was finally won, confirms that impression and demonstrates their fierce belief in independence. The whole monument is super size. The doorway to the building at the bottom of the monument is huge but is dwarfed by the building itself and the building is dwarfed by the monument’s height. It was built between 1936 and 1939 and is the world’s tallest masonry column.

You’ll recall from my San Antonio blog post that the Mexican General Santa Anna defeated the stand by William Travis, Crockett and Bowie at the Alamo. Santa Anna (who reportedly had a rather big ego, called himself “The Napoleon of the West”) then went on to attempt to stamp out the rebellion and defeated the rebels at Goliad as well. The courageous stand at the Alamo helped to motivate the troops under Sam Houston who finally defeat Santa Anna here at San Jacinto. Houston tried the patience of his troops because of his repeated withdrawals but he was looking for the best advantage against the Mexican army which outnumbered his men two to one, and this was finally the opportunity. Houston mounted a surprise attack, taking advantage of a bad positioning decision made by Santa Anna. A small rise in the land where the monument stands and an oak forest helped hide the rebel forces. The battle lasted only 20 minutes and Houston forced Santa Anna’s surrender and secured the safety of the colonists and rebels throughout Texas.

There is a great movie in the museum at the base of the monument that explains the battle itself and puts it all into context. With that base of information, I headed to the observation deck at the top of the monument, right under the Texas star. The observation deck is 486 feet high and I got a great view of the battlefield but also the whole Houston harbour area. (I didn’t realize the Houston harbour is the busiest in the country).

Then I headed over to see the USS Texas, the last steam powered battleship, which is on display nearby. It was a much smaller ship than the one I’d visited in Corpus Christi, but equally interesting. One of the things I noted was how they used every square inch of space on the ship and bunks were stuffed into every possible spot.

I hadn’t really spent any time on the beach since arriving in this beach community!, so I headed back to have some lunch and wander the beach for a bit. It was overcast and humid day, about 22 degrees, not too much wind. Couldn’t have been more perfect. I lunched at a Galveston institution called The Spot. Great burger, chaos for service. Then wandered the beach and told some pictures.

I have also included some pictures of oil/gas installations and some random pictures of the beach houses just to give you a sense of what it looks like.

I’ll be pulling up pegs tomorrow morning and heading north and east and on to a new state for both my trailer and myself.