Anahuac: The Spark of the Texas Revolution

Long before the Alamo, before San Jacinto, the tensions that would explode into the Texas Revolution first flared here at Anahuac, on the bluff above the mouth of the Trinity River. In 1832 a Mexican garrison under Colonel Juan Davis Bradburn clashed with Anglo colonists over customs enforcement, martial rule, and the jailing of a young lawyer named William Barret Travis — the same Travis who would die commanding the Alamo four years later. The confrontation drew armed colonists to the town, led to Travis's release, and helped set Texas on the road to open rebellion. A second flare-up at Anahuac in 1835 pushed things closer still. This driving tour visits the site of old Fort Anahuac, the markers to the men caught up in the disturbances, the courthouse of Chambers County, and the home of the county's namesake, tracing the ground where the revolution's first sparks were struck.