The Past, Present, and Future of San Jacinto

Video Statistics and Information

Video
Captions Word Cloud
Reddit Comments
Captions
[Amy Rogers:] Hello, good afternoon everyone!  We're going to go ahead and get started. We're   happy to have you all here this afternoon, so  happy you could join us. Welcome to the Past,   Present and Future of San Jacinto. I'm Amy Rogers,  I am the executive director here at San Jacinto,   responsible for both the San Jacinto Battleground  State Historic Site and the San Jacinto Museum and   Battlefield Association, and I have here with  me today my colleagues; I have Cait Johnson,   who is our lead educator for the San Jacinto  Battleground, and I have Cecilia Abad, who is   the curator at the San Jacinto Museum. So before  we get started with our presentation, I have   just a few housekeeping things to go over. We do  welcome your questions! We hope that you'll have   lots of questions for us, so please use the Q&A  feature that you will see on the Zoom. Depending   on your device, the Zoom toolbar will be at either  the very top or the very bottom of your screen.   Move your mouse there or tap your mobile device  and then click or tap on the icon that says "Q&A."   If you don't see it, look for an icon that  has three dots—dot-dot-dot—and then look for   something that says "More" and then you  should be able to see that Q&A feature. So with that, we are going to get started.  Again, put your questions in, we'll answer   them at the end of the presentation. And we  are going to get started with Cait Johnson. [Cait Johnson:]   Okay, I'm waiting for the  PowerPoint to pop back up. Thank you. So, like, like Amy said, my name is Cait Johnson,  I am the lead educator out here, and I'm going to   be talking about the "past" portion of "Past,  Present, and Future," a bit about what happens   out on the San Jacinto Battlefield, on this  peninsula, before the Battle of San Jacinto,   and then what happens after the Battle of San  Jacinto but before we become a historic site.   Which is a big old chunk of time, so I'm gonna  dive right in! The stories of San Jacinto usually   start with the arrival of the first Anglo  Americans, Anglo American settlers out here,   but that is obviously way too late in the actual  story of the history of San Jacinto. Long before   the McCormicks or the Lynches or Houston or Santa  Anna had ever arrived to this bit of coastal   prairie, Native Americans were calling it home.  The earliest known human occupation on the San   Jacinto Peninsula dates to about 1700 BC. That's  the Middle Archaic period if you're familiar with   Native American archeology and prehistory.  In fact one of the earliest shell middens   on the upper Texas coast is located on the San  Jacinto Peninsula; it's just beyond the bounds of   the battlefield itself. These Native Americans  were hunter-gatherers. They occupied the San   Jacinto Peninsula seasonally; during the spring  and summer they would move inland to gather plants   and to hunt for game, and then in the winter and  fall they would move back to the coast where they   would harvest clams and oysters. Because there  is such an abundance of different ecosystems   out here—we're close to the ocean and then there's  the estuaries and the marshes, there's the rivers,   there's coastal prairie, there's the bottomland  forest, there's a lot going on in this area—that   means there's a very diverse amount of flora and  fauna, which allowed fairly sizable populations to   exist up in this, this part of the Texas  coast without existing on agriculture. There we go. Shell middens are the most common  archeological remains on the peninsula. Neither of   these photos are from San Jacinto, but I wanted to  give you guys an idea of what a shell midden looks   like. A shell midden is a collection of discarded  mollusk shells. It's essentially a trash heap,   the remains from processing shellfish. Out at San  Jacinto, the shell middens are primarily clams and   oyster shells, but they do include other things  such as pieces of pottery, projectile points,   stone tools, other remains of other animals,  such as fish, turtle, bison, deer, raccoon,   and snakes. So there's a pretty interesting look  at what was going on at that site. And then before   I do go any further, I do want to remind people  that it is illegal to conduct an unauthorized   archeological excavation on public land in Texas.  Please do not show up at the battlefield or any of   the surrounding areas with a shovel and a metal  detector thinking you're going to find Native   American artifacts, or artifacts from the battle.  Do not do that, you will get in trouble. So I want   to talk about this, but I don't want to encourage  people to go with looking for it themselves. The   presence of Native Americans in the general San  Jacinto area decreases significantly after around   1400 AD, and there are only minimal accounts from  the settlers in the San Jacinto area about their   interactions with Native Americans once they  arrive. I know there are lots of accounts of   Native— of Texians farther inland having all sorts  of interactions with Native Americans, but I am   very specifically talking about just this small  part of the Texas coast. Most of the accounts we   do have come from the Harrisburg area. Dilue Rose  Harris mentions in her diary that Native Americans   would come to Harrisburg to sell buffalo,  bear, and deer skins, blankets and beadworks,   beadwork, and then Rosa Kleberg, who immigrated  to Harrisburg in 1834, told a story about a Native   American man who came into her home, actually, as  they were moving in, and he saw this loaf of bread   on her table and he took it, and in its place he  put two large venison hams, told her "Swap," and   then left. But the accounts that we get from the,  the Texians once they, once they arrive are pretty   minimal. You'll notice that I have been saying  "Native American" and not referring to a specific   tribe, and that's because many of the remains out  in San Jacinto specifically are so old that it's   really difficult to associate them with a modern  tribe. The two Native American groups that we know   lived in this area when Europeans began to arrive  were the Karankawa and the Akokisa. The border   between their traditional homelands meet[s]  around Galveston Bay. The Akokisa homeland   stretches north and northeast towards Louisiana,  while the Karankawa homeland stretches south along   the coast towards Mexico. But because the, this,  the remains we find are so long ago, it's really   hard to tell whether they belong to these two  groups or they belong to groups who lived here   long before the Karankawa or Akokisa showed up  that might have not really left much of a record   in the historical record, although obviously they  left some in the archeological record. The start   of recorded history on the San Jacinto Peninsula  begins with the arrival of Austin's colonists. San   Jacinto is at the eastern edge of Austin's first  colony. This map is from 1830, you can see the,   the dot here [left]—I hope y'all can see my  mouse—is San Felipe de Austin, while this one over   on the right-hand side is San Jacinto. So we are  part of that first colony. Many of the settlers in   this area were part of Austin's Old Three Hundred.  The first of these settlers to officially get a   land grant out here was William Scott; his land  grant was issued during the summer of 1824 and his   property was located across the river and to the  south of the battlefield. The, the better known of   the residents out here is the McCormick family.  They were issued their land grant on August 10,   1824, shortly before— shortly after Scott was,  and as an aside, all of these families likely were   out here beforehand, but since Stephen F. Austin  hadn't arranged— hadn't finalized his arrangement   with the Mexican government, which allowed him to  give out land grants, they would have technically   been squatting, and we don't have a ton of details  and records about when exactly they arrived. The   McCormick family consisted of Arthur McCormick;  his wife, Margaret, who was often called Peggy;   and their two sons, John and Michael. They had  immigrated from Ireland to New Orleans in 1818   and then on to Texas in 1823 or 1824. They built  a log cabin near the southwest shore of a bay,   a small bay on the San Antonio River, it's called  Peggy's Lake, you can see it here. It's referred   to as Peggy's Lake and not Peggy's Bay because  the only opening to the river is this very narrow   opening right here, so for most of the the bay  it actually looks like a, looks like a lake.   You can see on this map, which is from the 1840s,  this is where the McCormicks' house was, this is   where the battleground was here. And this would  have been right about where Lynch's Ferry was.   The McCormicks raised cattle. In February of  1824 and December of 1824 or January 1825, Arthur   McCormick had his land surveyed, and back before  there was precise maps or even, you know, most of   the land was claimed by somebody, local landmarks  were used to mark the edge of a boundary. So the   McCormicks' league was measured from a four-inch  persimmon tree near the San Jacinto River,   because there was not a whole lot out here. The  McCormicks knew they wanted to, to, to raise   cattle on the land, they came with that idea, and  so they requested that the surveyor focus on the,   focus on the open prairie and not the, the marshy  land next to the rivers. In February of 1824,   Arthur traveled, traveled to San Felipe  de Austin to discuss a plan to establish   a colony of Irish immigrants in Texas, and  he was granted the credentials to do it,   but he drowned on his return trip, trying to cross  Buffalo Bayou, and the project fell apart. His   property passed to his widow, Peggy, who stayed on  the land; she continued to raise cattle to sell,   along with her two sons, and they were still  living here in 1835 when the Texas Revolution   broke out. A couple of the other notable  residents in this area include Nathaniel Lynch,   who founded Lynch's Ferry; David G Burnet, who  was the first [interim] president of Texas;   and Lorenzo de Zavala, who was the first vice  president of Texas. The nearest commercial city   center was Harrisburg, which was located 10 or  11 miles to the east; it is marked here on this   map with that little black dot. It was founded  sometime between 1825 by John Richardson Harris.   It is actually, the Harrison family had founded  Harrisburg, Pennsylvania a couple generations   before, which is how Harrisburg, Texas got its  name. And it quickly became an important depot   center, since supplies could usually make it that  far up the Buffalo Bayou. Harrisburg was at the   junction of Buffalo Bayou and Brays Bayou  in Houston, kind of in eastern Houston now,   and the Buffalo Bayou was pretty navigable up  to that point, so smaller vessels could get in,   and regular schooners ran between Harrisburg and  New Orleans. At the outbreak of the revolution,   Harrisburg was a town of about 20 houses; it  had a sawmill, a tannery, and a general store,   and records from that general store show that  most of the residents of the San Jacinto area,   including Peggy McCormick, shopped  and traded at the store in Harrisburg.   Well that brings us up to the, to the Battle of  San Jacinto. After the battle the, uh— San Jacinto   was left just kind of— it was a very grisly  sight. In his memoir, William Zuber, a private   in the Texas Army, recalled what the battlefield  looked like. He wrote: "After breakfast on the   morning of the twenty-third, I walked alone to  the battlefield. The slain Mexicans were a ghastly   sight. Exposed first to a drenching rain and then  to a burning sun, they were decaying rapidly and   could not be moved without breaking into pieces.  They sent forth a sickening stench." When Peggy   McCormick returned—she had left as part of the,  the Runaway Scrape along with most of the other   civilians—she found that her, both armies had  slaughtered all of her cows for food, and that   her land was covered with unburied bodies, so she  was understandably pretty upset. She wrote into   the Texas camp to demand that General Houston bury  the bodies, and she told him the sight would haunt   her for the rest of her life. However, he refused  to do this, to bury the bodies. He did try to calm   her down by telling her, “Madam, your land will  be famed in history as the classic spot upon which   the glorious victory of San Jacinto was gained!  Here was born, in the throes of revolution, and   amid the strife of contending legions, the infant  of Texan independence!” Peggy was a good frontier   lady, she was not going to be swayed by that sort  of flattery, and she responded, “To the devil with   your glorious history!,” which is one of the great  quotes from the Texas Revolution, in my opinion.   The bodies of the, the Texas soldiers laid  unburied throughout the summer and fall,   both on the McCormicks' land and on some of the  other lands surrounding it—on her neighbors'.   Vultures and coyotes ate the dead pack animals,  but they didn't really touch the human remains,   likely because they were wearing clothing, but at  least some of the bodies were disturbed by human   grazers. When John Jacob Audubon—John James  Audubon, the American naturalist who's best   known for his book on birds, visited in 1837, he  acquired five skulls from the battleground to send   home to a friend in Philadelphia who wanted  to study them, and there are other accounts   of skulls being taken from the battleground as a  very grisly souvenir. Peggy appealed to the new   Republic of Texas' government for help burying  the dead, but she didn't have any success,   and eventually the cows, her cows and her  neighbors' cows, started to chew on the bones,   which ruined the milk and the beef—it gave  them such a bad taste that it couldn't   be sold. And so Peggy and her neighbors  finally buried the bones in a mass grave.   I'm by the way having a little bit— I'm not  able to advance through the slides— oh yeah,   there we go! Never mind— After the victory, San  Jacinto area was understandably receiving quite   a lot of attention from Texans, so to capitalize  this, upon this, Nathaniel Lynch established the   town of San Jacinto, which was at the very tip of  the San Jacinto Peninsula, so this is about where   the modern site is. So here is where the town  of San Jacinto is. It was just at the tip of the   peninsula across from the town of Lynchburg, which  Nathaniel Lynch had established about a decade   earlier. It was laid out on a 100-acre tract with  29 blocks of eight lot, eight lots each, and uh,   sorry— however, before sales of the lots could  really take off, Nathaniel Lynch died in February   of 1837; at the time, only five of the 232 lots  had been sold. But despite this setback, the   town continued to grow. Its economy was based on  shipping, shipbuilding, and ship repair, primarily   for the ships that traveled between Houston—which  was also established in 1836 but grew far more   rapidly than San Jacinto did—and Galveston.  So because Buffalo Bayou was pretty navigable—   it was pretty navigable, it— sorry— Before,  because Buffalo Bayou was pretty navigable,   Houston became an important trade center. It—  Farmers from the from the inland area would   bring their agriculture, primarily cotton, there  so that it could be shipped onto the wider world.   However Buffalo Bayou wasn't so navigable that  ocean-going ships could get in there, so instead,   this cotton was brought to Houston, it was then  loaded onto steamboats or river barges, taken down   the Buffalo Bayou, down San Jacinto River and to  Galveston, where it was then put on larger boats   and sent out to other ports. And so towns like San  Jacinto and Lynchburg, which were right on Buffalo   Bayou, right at the the merger of Buffalo Bayou  and the San Jacinto River were ideally situated   to capitalize upon this trade. And by the 1840s,  San Jacinto was a small but busy industrial city   that was focused on the New Hope Sawmill, the New  Hope Shipyard. It also had two other shipyards,   so three in total, a wharf, a general store, two  blacksmith shops, and a population of over 200.   The town reached its peak in the 1860s and 1870s,  at which point it was so large that residents'   homes extended all the way to the battlefield, but  1875 was the beginning of the end for San Jacinto.   In January a railroad opened up between Houston  and Galveston, allowing farmers to ship their   goods by rail as opposed to by river, and then  on September 17, 1875, San Jacinto and the entire   area was devastated by the Indianola hurricane.  A storm surge of at least 14 feet, and according   to the Houston Daily Telegraph, all the houses  along Buffalo Bay from Lynchburg to the bay were   swept off—not a home standing on the shores  of San Jacinto Bay. That's a bit hyperbolic,   but there was quite a lot of devastation. And then  the following year, a project by Charles Morgan to   widen the waterways between Houston and Galveston  was completed, and in September of 1876 the first   ocean-going vessel sailed up the San Jacinto River  and Buffalo Bayou into Houston, so that is the   start of the Houston Ship Channel, which still  runs right by the site today. So at this point,   their economy was basically in shambles and their  town was destroyed—a really rough two years out   here—and most of residents ended up leaving; they  either moved their homes further inland, where it   was safer, to higher ground, or they left entirely  to find better economic opportunities somewhere   else. The town was hit by further hurricanes,  and so by the second Indianola hurricane in 1886,   the 1900 Galveston hurricane, and then finally a  hurricane in 1915 destroyed what few structures   remained. The only thing that is above water from  the town today is the Town Cemetery. In 1883,   the land of— the state began to purchase the  land that is now the San Jacinto Battleground,   the San Jacinto State Park was founded in 1907 and  the rest is history, or maybe more accurately for   this webinar, it is now the present, so I will  turn things over to Cecilia. [Cecilia Abad:] Hi! My name is Cecilia Abad and I am the curator  at the San Jacinto Museum. Let me, um... Okay I'm trying to get a hold of  the slides, hold on just a sec. So I'll just say "next slide" um when I need to go  to the next slide. This one's good for now. So hi,   sorry about that. My name is Cecilia Abad, I am  the curator at the San Jacinto Museum. Currently   the museum is working on a new exhibit titled  "After the Battle of San Jacinto." I chose this   topic because I wanted to explore what happened  to the San Jacinto veterans and Texas Revolution   veterans after the revolution ended. We know that  these men ended up participating and being active   in the military after the San Jacinto battle.  They got involved in politics and they also   got involved in establishing businesses throughout  the republic, so I wanted to look at their lives.   The exhibit is organized with three overarching  themes: the first one is immediately after the   battle of San Jacinto, the second is the Republic,  and the third is life under the Republic.   These three items are focus— coincide with  the three spaces that we have for the special   exhibit. Each section is an enhanced  with sub-themes and narratives to cut—   to guide the visitors as they explore the exhibit  itself. The narratives throughout the the exhibit   tell the human experience of that historical  moment, and I truly think that by providing   these narratives, people can connect with these  historical figures and understand the historical   moments within a better perspective. My point is,  it doesn't matter if you're from Texas, it doesn't   matter if you're from New York or Florida, I  want you to connect to the history here. The   fact that you're already in a historical site,  in a historical building, looking at historical   artifacts, there is already a connection there,  and I want to basically read these stories and get   something out of those stories. With that said,  throughout this presentation I'm going to look   at some of the artifacts and some of the graphics  that I'm going to— that I use throughout the exhibit,   and basically just tell you guys what I was  thinking and why I chose those artifacts. So   this first artifact that you see is actually from  the Guerrero Battalion. The Guerrero Battalion was   led by Colonel Manuel Cespedes. After the, after  24 hours of marching, the Guerrero Battalion,   when they arrived at the camp, at the  campsite in the morning of April 21st,   1836, these men were exhausted. They ended up  going to sleep and they were, they ended up   waking up by the surprise attack by the Texian  Army. Now I thought this was an important piece   to put in the front because not only does it  tie in the battle itself, but these men were   also part of the battle that, that eventually most  of them died in, in, after the, the battle ended.   Another reason why I chose this artifact to  be at the forefront of the exhibit itself   is because it was also found on the battle site.  We have two of these artifacts: one artifact was   found through an archeological dig and another  one was actually picked up on the site itself.   And I think it's important again, to kind of  reiterate— I think it's also important to kind   of reiterate that we are in a historical place, and  kind of reminding the museum visitor that this was   picked up here, the battle was fought here,  and these men died here. Again, we're trying   to make that human connection, and we're trying  to have that overall experience with visitors. Okay. Next slide. Thank you. Now these are some other  artifacts. These were all owned by Santa Anna,   they were all here during the Battle of  San Jacinto. To the left you have the knee,   a knee buckle, and then to the right  you have a martingale. These artifacts,   I'm choosing to talk about these because  I want to demonstrate how these artifacts   have different stories that go with it, or you, or  depending on how you want to interpret that story,   you can pull stories out of them. For instance,  the knee buckle was owned by Santa Anna, was— After   the battle of San Jacinto happened and the Mexican  Army dispersed and the Texians won, the Texians went   into the Mexican camp and they took the goods and  then they sold it in auction. So the sub-theme here   is the spoils of war. So we have Texian  veterans that come together, they purchase this   knee buckle, and then they give it to Sam Houston.  So that's a story there, you can pull a story   from Santa Anna, the veterans, and Sam Houston. The  martingale [device related to horse's reins] also owned by Santa Anna was also here   during the Battle of San Jacinto, was bought by  Sydney Sherman, another great San Jacinto veteran   that we see here. And just depending on how you  want to talk about, it in this exhibit I'm putting   it under the spoils of war, but that doesn't mean  that our educators can't go through it and talk   about the different aspects and the different  stories that these artifacts can tell as well. Okay, next slide. Okay, so this one's an interesting perspective  here. This is a primary document, it's actually   from a Mexican governor— oh, can you go back? — This  is from the Mexican governor from Nuevo Leon, it's a state in Mexico, and essentially this  primary source, you have the governor talking,   trying to rally up the Mexican people, saying  that we need to go back and we need to recover   Texas, and it's a very patriotic letter, and he's  trying to rally them up to invade Texas again and   that he can't believe that the Texians won at the  Battle of San Jacinto, and he can't believe that   Santa Anna is captured—how could  they, right? How could the Texians do   this? So this is this patriotic, this very patriotic  letter, and I just thought it was an important,   at an important aspect to, to, to show this so that  people could get an outside perspective, right,   the Mexican reaction to the Texians winning.  And when you go into the exhibit, I have this   this letter, it's translated and paraphrased  in English so, so that the English[-speaking] visitor can read   it and understand the gist of the letter itself, but beside it we also have the U.S. reaction to   the Texans winning the Battle of San Jacinto,  which is totally, two different reactions, and I   just thought that was an interesting primary  source to put there, and it also allows me to   foreshadow the problems that the Republic will  face as Sam Houston and Mirabeau B. Lamar are   governing the Republic itself and the choices that  they make while they're presidents. So, next slide. This artifact actually falls under the  overarching theme of the Republic itself. Within   this theme I look and I compare, I compare and  contrast Lamar and Houston's policies and their   views, and their long-term views for the Republic  itself. I look at how they were, they grew up, what   their relationship with the Indigenous people  were when they were younger in their   political careers, and this is why I have Sam  Houston dressed in Cherokee dress and I have his   wool leggings, his Cherokee wool leggings. I  think when we're creating exhibits, we have to use   graphics and images that can enhance the story  or kind of provide the visitor with an interesting an interesting little side note, right? If  you look at the bottom of Sam Houston's   legs [in the image] you see that he has  two things tied underneath   where his shins are. Well, wool leggings, these leggings would have been worn on the bottom   as well, and so you see the two handles on both  sides of the artifact, so they would have been   tied at, to a certain point. We have two of them  and both of them would be showcased alongside   this image so that the visitor can make that quick  connection and hopefully kind of take away that,   take, at least take away this little interesting  fact about a different culture, about Sam   Houston's high esteem and relationships with the  Cherokee and the Indigenous tribes here in Texas,  as well as Lamar's relationships as well.  Within this section I also talk about a Mexican   invasion, right? Previously I had mentioned that  I was foreshadowing that all many Texians had a   real fear that there were, there might be a second  invasion from the Mexicans, and there was conflict   with the Mexicans, and within this section of the  exhibit, I do talk about that, but I will not go   into it because I want you guys to come out on, in  April and check out the exhibit! So, next slide. Now the last aspect of the exhibit itself is  life under the Republic, and this is where   I really get to kind of dive into what happens,  what cities are established, women, what was   the role of women, and things like that. So  one of the first things that we look at is   the establishment of Houston. Many people don't  realize that Houston was actually established   just a few months after the battle of San Jacinto,  right, that it was established in August, August   30th, 1836, by Augustus— Augustus and John Allen.  Both of them were brothers from New York.  And so that's an interesting aspect to it, to,  to the story of, after the battle of San Jacinto.  It's also said that, it's one of  the Allen brothers, Charlotte Baldwin   Allen, the wife of Augustus Chapman Allen,  might have financed the Allen brothers, might have, might have—sorry—might have financed the money to purchase for the Allen brothers   to purchase the land where the city of Houston  was established, and it's also rumored that she   might have been the one that, to say hey, let's  call this new town Houston, because that's going   to draw people in. So we'll see if that's true  or not, but at least we get to kind of jump into   who Charlotte Baldwin is and what her role was  with the city of Houston itself. Next slide. Okay, so this here is a picture of Andrew Briscoe.  He's a San Jacinto veteran and he's also one   of the first people who spearheaded a, the first  railroad in Texas itself, the Harrisburg Railroad,   planned, it was being planned in 1839. Eventually  it was abandoned, but in 1853 the Buffalo Bayou,   Brazos and Colorado River [Railway] was initiated, and  Sydney Sherman, another San Jacinto veteran,  became involved in that as well. So here you show—  I'm showing basically someone who is involved in   local politics in Harrisburg, but then he also  becomes involved in establishing one of the— or   spearheading one of the first railroads in Texas,  which is quite remarkable. And the next slide— Here is Jane Harris. Jane Harris— I know Cait had  mentioned the Runaway Scrape—Jane Harris was also   involved in the Runaway Scrape. She was married  to Richard Harris, who established Harrisburg.   When his, when he died, eventually Jane  Harris and her son, they moved to Harrisburg.   When the Rev— when the Rev— when the Battle  of San Jacinto happened, and when the Mexican   Army was following Sam, Sam Houston, she  along with her sons and other women and other   colonists ended up fleeing east to escape the  Mexican army. When she returned home, she found her   her home burned down by the Mexican army, so she  and her son and others had to rebuild their own   home. So there's artifacts about her. It's also  her daughter who ends up marrying Andrew Briscoe,  so there's a nice kind of connection among the  family itself. And then we can go to the next slide. The next slide... There we go. Okay. And so as we're exploring  this last piece of the exhibit itself,  we do look at Samuel McCulloch Jr.  and how he became involved in the Texas   veteran associations, and many others,  and many other, and many other events. In this section, in this section of, this last  section I really wanted to explore the different   lives, right, I wanted to bring out the women, I  wanted to bring out Andrew Briscoe, I wanted to   bring out the Tejano community, as well as Samuel  McCulloch's life after the Texas Revolution ended,   what did he do, what did he become involved in, and when he remained in Texas and what other   what other activities did he, was, was he a part of. And so out of this exhibit I would really like   for people to understand that although these  men were involved in the Battle of San Jacinto   or the Texas Revolution, these men remained, and  remained in Texas and were proud Texans, and really   wanted to bring the best in the Republic by  establishing businesses, or fighting for the Tejano   community, or, or you know, rebuilding their  home and, and things like that. So I really hope   you all can kind of get that out of the exhibit.  and, and that kind of concludes my, my talk. [Amy Rogers:] Thank you so much Cecilia, and to Kate. I'm  always in awe of my talented colleagues.  So now I will attempt to take control of  these slides, bear with us, just a moment. I'm gonna go with my backup and I have the slides  advanced for me. The joys of technology, right?   So I get the, the pleasure of kind of sharing  with you of, well, what's next for San Jacinto? San   Jacinto means so much to so many people. It has  been a beloved destination for many of Texans   and people from all over the world, and so where do  we see the, the future of San Jacinto? So before I   kind of launch in and share with you some of the  images that I'm going to show you today, I do need   to preface this with, that these are conceptual  drawings, we are in the early planning stages,   things can change as we move along, so, so  don't hold us totally to these things. But   we were excited to share with you the future, and, and have, bring you along on this journey of   what's next to come. So the image that you're  seeing here is an envisioned grand entry   onto the grounds and to the monument. If you  have visited San Jacinto before, you are aware   that you come down Independence Parkway to take  the straight shot into the monument, you go down   a road that's called Vista Road. You also are aware  that as you're entering into the site that you are   surrounded by chemical plants, lots of industry.  And so we have no way of doing away with all of   the industry around us, but we thought we can at  least, once you have entered on to that entrance   onto the historic site, we can do our best to  kind of block that out and let you fully immerse   yourself into your entrance onto the grounds. We  want you to be very much aware that you are coming   on to the sacred grounds of San Jacinto, and try  to take you back to 1836. So, next slide please.   This here, you see kind of what the re-envisioned  area around the monument will be. The monument of   course will remain a focal point for many to  visit the site, however you'll hear in some of   my next slides how we plan to get visitors  out exploring all of the grounds. So this is   a great image here that shows the way that buses  will come in to let out school groups; it shows   that we have additional parking; also, if you've  visited San Jacinto on any of our big events,   you know that parking is always a bit of a  challenge. You'll see that we have some great   landscaping to really let the monument  shine, showcase, you know, what we have   to offer, really bring the visitor into this  grant entry into this space. Next slide, please. This here shows you a little bit about how the circulation of a visit would go to, to encourage people to go over the entire grounds. Many people   aren't aware that San Jacinto actually sits on  a little over 1300 acres, and you'd be surprised   how many visitors come into the site and go  straight to the monument and don't necessarily   know that they can actually explore the grounds  where the Mexican camp was, where the Texian camp   was, follow the flow of the the battle pattern,  and so the new planned site will make the, the   the wayfinding, the, the way that you go  through the site, it's going to become very   obvious, it's going to guide you, it's  going to encourage this exploration.  And you'll see too that we plan to do more  restored areas of the natural landscape;   again, we want to immerse this visitor into,  into the site, we want to bring it back to   as close to its look that it would have been  during 1836 and after as possible. Next slide. We'll also have some improved site interpretation.  Our site interpreters, our curator, all of our   staff does a great job of interpreting the site  and the things that we have here through programs,   through exhibitions, through webinars such  as this, through lectures, but there are some   people, we recognize, that would rather explore  these areas on their own, and so we want to   give them different ways to do that. We'll have  immersive, we'll have apps that allow you to   get immersive visuals, hear personal stories,  have interactive maps and also a way for you to   easily find upcoming events or ways that you can  get involved. Next slide, please. This is an exterior   view of the envisioned new visitor center. This will be located, for those of you that know   the monument well, there's an amphitheater space  outside of the doors closest to the gift shop;   this visitor center would go in that site. This  site is chosen for a couple of different reasons,   one because it has been archeologically  cleared already, so we are not putting in   an additional structure that's going to, to cover  up a very historically rich area of the grounds.   But you can see here that we're keeping in mind  that we want to create a space that allows a long   visit, that lets you have leisure time here—you can  sit out on the rooftop decks and enjoy nature, you   can have great views of the battleground, there  will be a café space—you can stay, have a snack,   have a beverage, spend time with your family.  We want you to get the most out of your visit. Next slide. This is a proposed interior  view of one of the gallery spaces that would   be located within the visitor center. We call  this the Converging Forces Gallery. We kind   of envision the visitor center kind of being  broken down into a couple different areas: you   will have what we call the 1836 Theater area  which gives you that introduct— introduction,   excuse me, to the space, that gives you the history  that leads up to the battle, the history after,   tells you about our other historic sites and how  they play into this, the Texas revolutionary story.   This particular gallery that you see  here allows you to go up to these virtual   soldiers or key people of the battle,  interact with them, hear their stories,   hear how they— what role they played in the  battle. Again, very interactive for guests.   And another area that would be within the  visitor center is what we call the Decisive   Victory area, which talks about the, what this,  what this battle meant to Texas and the rest of   the United States—why it was such a pivotal moment  in history. And then the, and within the monument,   we talk about the legacy of the battle and turn  the monument more, more into what it was originally   meant to be: a testament to these soldiers that  gave their lives for this battle. Next slide, please. Again you see here just a quick experience plan  layout of what, how the new visitor center will   connect into the monument, how the monument will  play into the overall feel of the grounds. I think it's a great visual to see how they  would connect together: you have a land bridge   that goes over, this makes it easy for guests  to explore both spaces when visiting the   visitor center and it's also a great starting  point to then go out and explore the grounds. And that is the end of my visuals, but I do  want to say that we're extremely excited   about the future of San Jacinto, we're  honored to get to tell the story of San   Jacinto, whether we're talking about the past,  whether we're talking about what's happening   here presently, or getting everyone excited  about what's to come in the future, and we   thank you for being here today and we  definitely want to open it up for Q&A,   So we're going to look through some  questions here, and I have one for Cait:  Why did the other parts of the Mexican army  operating in Texas, the forces commanded by   Urrea, not come to Santa Anna's rescue after the  April 21st battle? [Cait Johnson:] That's a great question, and   it was a really conc— it was something that Houston  was very concerned about, because the Mexican army—   even though we've had this really decisive victory  at San Jacinto, we only defeated about a   third of the Mexican army and it had taken his  entire army to do it, so his forces were still   significantly outnumbered, and that's why it was  so important that Santa Anna was captured the next   day. And so he's captured, taken to, to Houston,  who was under the surrender tree, we all know the   painting, and what Houston required him to do,  it wasn't actually the the treaties that ended   the war weren't signed there; that would happen a  couple weeks later in Velasco—but Houston did   get Santa Anna to write to his generals right then,  that day, and tell them to fall back, and that   was in exchange for his life, essentially. So that's  why they didn't, and then why they didn't come out on   the 22nd was they didn't know about the defeat yet,  they wouldn't figure that out until I believe   the 23rd is when the, the one Mexican soldier  who manages to escape and make it back to   to the Mexican camp at Fort Bend doesn't arrive  until after Santa Anna has already been captured.   [Amy Rogers:] Thank you, Cait. I'm going to take a question here  that says, we are talking a lot about future visits   and you're right, however they've never  visited before; what is currently available   for visitors now? So that's a great question.  So the battleground, the grounds themselves are   open seven days a week, outside of some holidays  which you can find listed on our website, so you   can explore the grounds; we have some wayfinding  signage, some interpretive panels throughout   the grounds, we have a map that you can pick up  or we also have an app that allows you to to use   on your mobile device to help you explore the  grounds. The museum is open Wednesdays through   Sundays, 9 to 6, and within the museum  you can see our permanent exhibit, you can   see our film "Texas Forever," which is a great,  great film, and you can also participate in   any of our programs that are going on on any  given weekend. And you will not be able to   see the special exhibit just yet and that'll  roll into another question that we had which   was, when does the special exhibit open? And it  will be opening the week of San Jacinto Day, so   we hope to have you here to see the new exhibit  and participate in our San Jacinto Day event. What next question do we want? [Cait Johnson:] There's a question I wanted to answer about the  Audubon skulls that I mentioned. Cynthia asked,   were they ever tracked down or recovered? Yes,  they were. In 2009, they were rediscovered in the   University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archeology  and Anthropology, which is in Philadelphia, and a   forensic artist named Amanda Danning has done  some really cool work with them; if you ever   get a chance to hear her speak, I would really  recommend it, she does a fantastic job. [Amy Rogers:] Good! Okay, let's see. So we have a question about timeline for  the new facilities, I'm assuming is what they're   referring to. So when, like I said we're in the  very early stages of kind of the conceptual ideas,  and we're just at a 50% on those. The timeline  for the actual construction is going to be pretty   dependent on this legislative session and the  hopeful money that is rewarded to the site   to do that, but all in, all said and done,  it's likely a three- to five-year process. Let's see. Cecilia, there's a question  for you if you want to take it live:   Will the new exhibit features that were pictured  be touchscreen interactive displays? [Cecilia Abad:] I wish   they were! They will be displayed, but they  will be behind acrylic cases, but we will, we   will have very— we're gonna have great visuals  and great graphics, so that can kind of engage   the visitors through, but that's something that I  think in the future we may want to move towards. [Amy Rogers:] Okay. let's see... Yeah, there's a question here: Are there any  plans to acquire additional land surrounding   the park? The answer to that is always yes.  It's, it's of course a complicated process, we have   to wait for something to come up, if one of the  plants has abandoned it or is looking to sell,   or a parcel comes up for sale, we have to,  you know, decide what significance that will play   into the site, secure funding. We are happy to  report that we have recently secured a piece of   land that through archeology work and surveys  is determined to, to be the Almonte surrender site,   and so that will be incorporated into  the, into the site through the new planning;   we will likely be conducting more archeology  work on that site and eventually putting an   archeology center there for students to  continue to learn and practice that trade. So the   answer is always yes, we're always looking to, to  add more parcels of land back into the grounds. Hm, see any others... [Cait Johnson:] There's a question about where the  casualties are buried: The Texian   soldiers who died are buried over in the  Texian camp, which is the part of the   site that is closest to the, the ship channel, and they are under an obelisk that was  originally, when it was put here in the 1880s,  called the San Jacinto Monument and then had   to get a name change when the current  San Jacinto Monument was built; it's now   called Brigham's Monument. As for the Mexican  dead, we do not know where they are buried.   We know they were buried in a mass grave, but  we don't know the exact location for that,   and we don't want to disturb them any  further—it's considered a final resting place. [Amy Rogers:] Let's see... Do you guys see any others that you want to take? I see a question here: Will the Battleship  Texas slip and the reflecting pond be filled   in or restored? So that's great question.  That is certainly up for discussion, has been   discussed, remains in discussion. We don't yet  have answers to that. I know that the ultimate   goal is to restore the grounds back as much as  possible, and that would certainly require both   of those areas being filled in; I know that the  Battleship slip is still a bit up in the air,  the reflection pool likely will be filled  in, however, the structure will not be removed,   so let's say a hundred years down the road,  the reflection pool is something that needs to be,   is, is deemed to be an important aspect of the, the  site in that time period, it can be easily,   the fill can be removed and the, the pool will  still be, the structure will still be there. Any other questions?   I see here: Was there, is there an exhibit  planned on the construction of the monument?  You're not gonna like my answer to that, but yes,  we did have an exhibit on the construction of the   monument that was up for a little over two years  here in the museum, that's actually the exhibit   that's currently being removed. However, the good  side of that answer is that you didn't totally   miss it, because there will be a portion of the  exhibits that are shown in the monument when we   get the new exhibits center, ex— visitor center,  sorry—that will speak to the construction of   the monument, because it's such a fascinating story  that so many people love to hear about it. That,   that will be incorporated into the permanent  exhibit once the visitor center is, is built. Did you want to take the one that just came  in, Cait? [Cait Johnson:] Yeah, so Larry asked: Who buried   the dead Mexican soldiers and who paid for  that? It was the McCormicks and a couple of   their neighbors. Eventually the people on the  peninsula banded together and said something   had to be done, and so they paid for a couple  of local guys to dig the, the grave. [Amy Rogers:] Good. I also see a question, question or two here about, is the elevator working? That's also been the question of the year.   We have been diligently acquiring parts  and, and working on restoring the elevator. It, it   could be working as soon as San Jacinto Day.  Things are looking really great, things have   been going well, we've had several testing,  tests done just this week that say we may have   finally found all of the kinks, but don't  hold me to that, but I'm, this is me being   cautiously, cautiously optimistic that we have  finally sorted out the puzzle that is a very old   pieced-together elevator, and it's basically  brand new at this point, so we're getting there. They want to know: Is there a book  describing the construction of the monument? [Cait Johnson:] Not to my knowledge; there are a handful of  articles written about it, but I don't think   there is a kind of comprehensive summary  about how the monument was constructed. They're wanting to know: Did we discuss the  ferry access to the monument and will there be   changes to that? I assume you're referring to  the current Lynchburg Ferry that the Harris   County operates, and as far as I am aware  that, that will not change, that will remain,   that will stay here as another  access point to get to, to San Jacinto. I think we might have time for one more— Oh,  this is a great question: What, what events   are coming up at the site? Pick a day and  we can give you an event! Our team has done a   great job, they've got lots and lots of things  happening at all times. Of course the biggest one   that's on our mind, San Jacinto Day event of course, which this year is on April 22nd.  We'd love to have you out—living  history demonstrations, reenactment,   vendors, food, lots of fun. Maybe  the most recent that Cait's thinking,   just this Friday and Saturday, our spring break  "Join the Texian Army" program will happen,   and what else after, what do we talk about,  for San Jacinto Day, we have lecture series,   lots and lots of programs that you can find on  our, both our website and the THC website. Do you   have something, Cait? [Cait Johnson:] Yeah, I wanted to bring up the  San Jacinto Family Day, which is a new initiative   we're doing this year, the first Saturday of every  month, which in April will be April 1st, kids   are free into the museum with the purchase of  an adult ticket and we will have a special   living history hands-on activity from 11 to 3, in April it's going to be making bullets out of   crayon wax, but demonstrating the way that it would  have been done during the Texas Revolution, and   then in May we will have, we're making candy  cartridges, so we are going to make traditional   bullet cartridges, but using candy instead of  gunpowder and bullets, to make it a little bit   more family-friendly that way. So do check our  website, we have a number of our upcoming family   days already on there and it's a really great  way to, to share this history with your family.   [Amy Rogers:] Definitely! And so with that, we're just about  running out of time, so I will end with   of course thanking you all for being here today,  everyone is incredibly busy and we're happy that   you decided to spend an hour with us. Thank you  to my colleagues Cait Johnson, our lead educator,  Cecilia Abad, our curator at the San Jacinto Museum.  I work with some very talented individuals which   makes my job a lot easier. I also want to say,  aside from the programs here at San Jacinto,   within THC and our other sites, at any given  time there's a program that you can participate   in whether it's in person— in person or virtual,  so watch out for those programs by going   to the THC website, their social media accounts,  or subscribing to the email newsletter, which the   newsletter is a great way to get information on  all of the things going on from all the different   departments, and you can find that at thc.texas.gov. So again, thank you so much, we're happy   that you were here, and thank you so much for your  participation and all of your great questions.
Info
Channel: Texas Historical Commission
Views: 1,669
Rating: undefined out of 5
Keywords:
Id: VDFp4IYWv8Y
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 57min 27sec (3447 seconds)
Published: Thu Mar 16 2023
Related Videos
Note
Please note that this website is currently a work in progress! Lots of interesting data and statistics to come.