While my daughter was here visiting, we did go to a few
interesting places. None were here in
Wharton or even Wharton County.
And just in case you ever wanted to know - Wharton County is, population-wise, small, only 42,000 in the last
census. Land-wise it’s smaller than some
but mostly about average to the rest. And, this may surprise people – it is included
in the Greater Houston Combined Statistical Area (yes, that means we’re counted
as part of greater Houston). There are
only 3 cities in the county with the most populous being El Campo. There are 22 unincorporated towns and communities and,
surprisingly, 11 ghost towns listed (and why those are included I have no idea
because I’ve been through several and there’s really nothing to see that tells
you something different/else/old was there).
So anyway, while she was here, we went to see the alligators at Brazos Bend State Park –
We also went to the Varner-Hogg Plantation. The property was originally the home of
Martin Varner, one of the Old Three Hundred and a veteran of the Texas
Revolution. The original plantation property was over 4,600 acres and Varner
raised corn, cattle and sugar cane. The
plantation was sold to Columbus Patton in 1834 who increased the land holdings
to 13,000 acres and built a sugar mill. There were a myriad of problems, changes,
deaths, and scandals until ultimately it was bought in the early 1900’s by
Governor James Hogg as a family retreat.
Then in the 1950’s, his daughter, Miss Ima Hogg donated the property to
the state. It’s a beautiful place with
manicured lawns and a lovely plantation house.
One of the truly unique things to see is the governors bath tub.
It’s a spring fed “tub” that flows into a swimming hole. And, we don’t have natural hot springs here – that water is chilly!
We also took a day and went to Galveston. Galveston is a favorite place for us. I grew up going there as did my children. It’s changed significantly since I went as a
child. It’s gone from a little beach
town to a major tourist end destination with all kinds of entertainment,
hotels, restaurants, shops, galleries, people to see, places to go, nice
beaches and the warm calm water of the Gulf of Mexico. My daughter is still a beach baby.
You see all sort of extremes there
to
docked one across from the other.
Okay – that’s about it for today.
18 Jun 2021
Sounds like you had a good time! Unlike those poor molested alligators.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the guided tour. Fo you think that the molesting notice was just a poor translation from the Spanish meaning something more like disturb? Anyway any attempt to molest an alligator is likely not to end well.For the molesters, that is.
ReplyDeleteNope - pretty sure it means what it says. No doubt in my mind there are people that will go up and poke one just for fun.
DeleteThe county map is so interesting. Much of Texas was gridded into sections, and the rest would be fun to know what happened.
ReplyDeleteWell - originally TX was divided into municipios by the Mexican government. After 1836 those became counties and over years were divided into smaller counties. I suspect it all depended on the size of the original municipio. Or could have been a drunk surveyor. :)
Delete