Where Texas Was Born - Washington on the Brazos

After arbitrarily deciding to camp in the little town of Navasota, Texas, we discovered a state historic site just six miles away. We decided to head that way just to see what a park called "Washington on the Brazos" might mean to Texas history. Now that we are Texas residents, it is time for us to learn more history about this big state. We knew that it had a long and colorful past, because we knew about "Six Flags Over Texas." That's more than just a theme park with roller coasters, and the town of Navasota has a park where all six flags are flying.

Starting from the right hand side, it was first a property of Spain (flag #1) and France (flag #2), and then Mexico (flag #3). Then the leader of Mexico went rogue and declared himself a dictator. This guy's name was  Santa Anna--not to be confused with the good guy known as Santa Claus. A bunch of Texans didn't like Santa Anna's new rules, and decided to do something about it. That's when skirmishes like the Dawson massacre and the black bean death lottery happened, and we just learned about that last week at a Texas state park called Monument Hill. There was also a little skirmish that we all remember at a place called "The Alamo." 167 miles away, the little town of Washington sitting right on the Brazos River (hence the name of the park) comes into play. A plain wooden meeting hall in that town now claims the title of "the birthplace of Texas".

While all the feuding was going on in San Antonio, Sam Houston got together a group of men to write and vote on a brand new constitution that would make Texas a country of its own. Seventeen days later, it was signed by the delegates in a room that looked like the one we are sitting in, pictured below. Suddenly there was a fourth flag--and Texas was a Republic in 1836. 

(Here's a totally unrelated but interesting side note: Denisa thought the volunteer leading our tour here looked familiar. After talking with him, we realized we met him and his wife while they were volunteering at a national monument in the San Juan Islands of Washington last summer!)

We were surprised to see a map in the visitor center that showed this new country of Texas extended up through parts of Kansas, Oklahoma, Colorado, New Mexico, and even into Wyoming. We had never known that the Oklahoma panhandle (where we were raised) was once part of the Republic of Texas. This flag flew for ten years, first led by Sam Houston. The last president of Texas was a doctor by the named of Dr. Anson Jones. The second part of our day took us to visit his farm, which is also part of the Washington on the Brazos state historical park. Dr. Jones's "dog trot" house, built in 1844, has an opening in the middle that allowed for an open-air living area in the shade during the hot Texas summer months.

The backyard had a couple smaller buildings--the kitchen on the left and smoke house on the right. The idea of cooking inside the house was not only smelly, but dangerous with an open fire used for most meals. Notice that Mark is hanging out at the kitchen like he usually does.

There were also barns and slave quarters across the field. This living history farm is named Barrington Farm, after Dr. Jones's boyhood home in Massachusetts.

Our animal pictures of the day have to include the farm animals kept here at the barnyard. The Tom turkey is obviously trying to impress the hen beside him.

This is a living history farm, and they try to keep it as true to the animals and practices of the 1840's as possible. This is the same breed of pig that the Spaniards brought to this area. The sow gave birth to eight piglets two weeks ago, and we could see that she needed a little time to herself. She crawled into the trough, and when one piglet climbed up next to her, she flung it off with her snout.

The farmer/ranger told us that many of the piglets don't look like any of the farm pigs. That's because the father is a feral hog that manhandled his way into the pen uninvited.

Our favorite farm animal had to be Slim. We called him a Texas Longhorn, but the ranger corrected us. Slim is an oxen. He also showed us the wooden yoke that Slim and his partner wear in order to help with some of the heavy pulling here on the farm.

Like many of us, Slim thinks that the grass looks greener on the other side of the fence. We were a little concerned how he would get those long horns back through the fence, but he didn't seem to have much trouble. We think he has done this trick before.

The ranger also gave us lessons on cutting the grass around the farm. The most important thing is a sharp scythe, so he spent some time sharpening the blade before he started. Instead of the normal ranger-clothes, he is wearing clothing reminiscent of the 1840's at Barington Farm.

Then we got some tips on proper scything skills. This experience made us glad that now we have lawn mowers. We're even more glad that we don't have any grass to mow!

They won't be mowing this section of the state historical park for a while. We found big fields of bluebonnets and other Texas wildflowers!

While Dr. Jones was still president of the Republic of Texas, he was also communicating with the country to the north. After ten years as its own country, Texas became the 28th state in 1846. That brought about the 5th flag--the United States Flag. The 6th flag came in 1861, when the confederate flag flew over Texas for four years. We've finished our Texas history lesson and its tale of six flags. We hadn't even heard of a state historical park called Washington on the Brazos before today. But armed with our Texas state park pass, we had a free and interesting day learning where Texas was born! This is another gem we found just wandering around this great country of ours.