Dayton & the Trinity River Bottoms

Dayton lies in the low, fertile bottoms just west of the Trinity River, on ground that saw one of the most dramatic episodes of the Texas Revolution — the Runaway Scrape, the panicked flight of settlers eastward as Santa Anna's army advanced in the spring of 1836. Families streaming toward the Sabine crossed this very country, and a marker in town remembers it. Later Dayton grew into a farming and railroad community, and its old churches, schools, and cemeteries record the settlers who put down roots in the rich but flood-prone river land. This short drive links the Revolution-era memory to the town that grew up afterward. Keep to the public streets, and remember the river bottoms east of town were both the settlers' escape route and their livelihood.