Kemah Boardwalk & Clear Lake's Shores

Kemah sits at the mouth of Clear Lake, where the water meets Galveston Bay, and it has always faced the sea. The name itself is said to come from a Native word meaning 'wind in the face,' which fits a town built on the breeze off the bay. It began as a railroad-and-farming village named Evergreen on an old Stephen F. Austin land grant, was rebuilt after the 1900 storm, and took the name Kemah when it got a post office. For most of the twentieth century it was a working fishing town — shrimp boats, seafood houses, and a channel busy with the traffic of the bay. Then, in the late 1990s, its waterfront was remade into the Kemah Boardwalk, a bright promenade of restaurants, rides, and a landmark tower that draws crowds from across the Houston area. This short walk pairs the boardwalk's lights with the deeper history of these shores: old plantation grounds, an early Texas patriot, and the pioneer cemeteries just across the channel. Comfortable shoes, and mind the wind.