Summer Vacation - Texas History Tour

1,683 Views | 13 Replies | Last: 5 yr ago by aalan94
oldag00
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AG
Our kids are finishing 4th & 7th grades, which both happen to cover Texas History. We're looking to arrange a Texas history themed vacation for this summer. We want to try to give some physical context to what they learned in class.

We plan to be gone for 8-9 days in late June and travel by RV leaving from and returning to B/CS. What stops, events, or attractions are a must do, see, or experience?

What things would you do? What things would you avoid?
JABQ04
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AG
oldag00 said:

Our kids are finishing 4th & 7th grades, which both happen to cover Texas History. We're looking to arrange a Texas history themed vacation for this summer. We want to try to give some physical context to what they learned in class.

We plan to be gone for 8-9 days in late June and travel by RV leaving from and returning to B/CS. What stops, events, or attractions are a must do, see, or experience?

What things would you do? What things would you avoid?


For Texas Revolution centered vacation I would do: Washington on the Brazos, San Jacinto (non Tex-Rev but Battleship Texas is right there too), Goliad, Gonzalez, San Antonio.
Cardiac Saturday
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AG
Fort Davis National Historic Site out in west Texas.

Operated by the National Park Service. Have never been there but from the website, it looks like they have an active living history program. Some of the Park Service employees I have known in the past that held interpretive positions in Living History programs were really into their roles. Think that Rabid Cougar, a fairly regular poster on this board, used to have a living history "job" as did I.
tmaggies
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AG
Texas State Cemetery and Bob Bullock Museum. The Stockyards in Fort Worth before they tear down the existing corrals. Texas Ranger Museum and Texas Forts trail.
dcbowers
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If you make it to Goliad (and you should), plan to spend the night in the apartment in the fort. Yes, there is an apartment that sleeps 3 - 4 in the fort. It books up 5 - 6 weeks in advance. The park staff leaves at 5:00 and you have the run of the fort until morning. The fort may or may not be haunted.

(Note that late night dining options in Goliad are limited.)
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Aquin
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I did something similar with our girls decades ago. Left Houston for San Antonio. Did the Alamo and the Mission Trail, which I recommend. Headed to Goliad. Double back to Washington on the Brazos, which is an underrated park, IMO. They had seen San Jacinto. Headed to Huntsville. Sam Houston's house and law office are next to the museum. It is worth seeing. You might take in the Steamboat House and his grave. Then we finished the trip off in Jefferson, which at one time was a seaport. Thanks to the Corps of Engineers it is no longer a port.
Cen-Tex
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AG
Another option is make a history tour thru South Texas. Maritime Museum in Rockport, USS Lexington at Corpus, Museum of South Texas History in Edinburg, Palmito Ranch & Palo Alto Battlefield, just to name a few attractions.
OldCamp
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The Texas Historical Commission has the Texas Independence trail which does a good job covering much of the Texas revolution.
http://www.thc.texas.gov/public/upload/publications/independence.pdf

More info here:
http://texasindependencetrail.com/map
Apache
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Quote:

Gonzalez
Sigh.
JABQ04
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Apache said:

Quote:

Gonzalez
Sigh.


My bad. Gonzales.
Apache
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Happens all the time
BQ78
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A little out of the way but I love to go to Menard where you can see the site of the old mission, the reconstructed Spanish Presidio and the still exisitng canals (okay ditches) built by the Spanish.

Nearby and equally fascinating is Ft. McKavett from the ante-bellum frontier fort defense days. Around the cookhouse are hundreds of remains of tin cans just tossed out of the cookhouse as trash.
Col. Steve Austin
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Cardiac Saturday said:

Fort Davis National Historic Site out in west Texas.

Operated by the National Park Service. Have never been there but from the website, it looks like they have an active living history program. Some of the Park Service employees I have known in the past that held interpretive positions in Living History programs were really into their roles. Think that Rabid Cougar, a fairly regular poster on this board, used to have a living history "job" as did I.
Yes! Went there as a child (long, long ago) and again just a couple of years ago. It was a very nice visit, lots of good static displays depicting conditions back in the day. Even my wife very much enjoyed it and she's not into History at all.
Rex Racer
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Aquin said:

I did something similar with our girls decades ago. Left Houston for San Antonio. Did the Alamo and the Mission Trail, which I recommend. Headed to Goliad. Double back to Washington on the Brazos, which is an underrated park, IMO. They had seen San Jacinto. Headed to Huntsville. Sam Houston's house and law office are next to the museum. It is worth seeing. You might take in the Steamboat House and his grave. Then we finished the trip off in Jefferson, which at one time was a seaport. Thanks to the Corps of Engineers it is no longer a port.
Agree with all of your suggestions. The Star of the Republic museum at Washington on the Brazos is very cool (and operated by Blinn College).

Jefferson is a great place to visit! You're correct, in fact, it was the largest inland seaport in the U.S. at it's peak, I believe. The House of the Seasons is a nice little tour, a drive out to Uncertain and a ride on the Graceful Ghost (a steam boat) on Caddo Lake is great. Also, Jefferson has an amazing museum full of really cool stuff. For example, they have a tea set that belonged to Czar Nicholas the II.
aalan94
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AG
Washington on the Brazos is definitely worth going to. I used to go there from College Station to sit and study under the huge trees. You might be able to camp there too if you have an RV.
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