The Birthplace of Texas

While in Texas last week, my sister and I visited toric-sites/washington-brazos-state-historic-site”>Washington-on-the-Brazos State Park southwest of Navasota, a very important location in Texas history.

I’ve come to realize that I’m more interested in historic sites for their aesthetic value than for their cultural value (shame on me!).  If we’d had all day, we would’ve made an effort to learn more about the historical significance of the site, but one of the many Texas wildflower update websites had reported that there was a nice field at the end of the wildflower loop nature trail, and we were intent on reveling in nature’s springtime paintbox.

We stopped to look inside Independence Hall, a replica of the hall in which the Texas Declaration of Independence was signed in 1836, and I captured another image for my “Come and Sit a Spell” series.  The trail was generally level and passed a couple of concrete foundations from the village of Washington, wound through verdant copses of trees, and skirted a small pond with a couple of picnic tables before finally bringing us to the wildflower meadows.  We only saw two or three other groups on the trails.

This park is definitely worth a full day’s visit.  In addition to the trails we walked (and more), there is an extensive interpretive display and gift shop in the visitor center, the Star of the Republic Museum, the toric-sites/barrington-plantation-state-historic-site”>Barrington Plantation State Historic Site (a living history farm), and a picnic area.  In looking up some of these facts and links, I’ve just discovered that there’s also an interactive phone app that sounds pretty cool, for example helping the visitor envision the bustling town as it was in 1836.  Definitely worth another visit in the future!