Battleship Texas: The Last Dreadnought

On a bend of the Houston Ship Channel where Texas won its independence, a gray steel giant rode at anchor for more than seventy years. The USS Texas, a New York class battleship commissioned in 1914, fired her guns in both world wars before coming home in 1948 to become the first permanent battleship memorial in the nation — moored, fittingly, across the water from the towering monument that marks the 1836 Battle of San Jacinto. This short loop walks the state historic site where the ship and the battlefield meet: the plaza and cemetery of the early settlers who came before the war, the reflecting basin beneath the monument, the museum that tells the story of the eighteen minutes that made a republic, and the berth from which the great dreadnought stood guard over the ship channel. (Note: the ship herself was towed to Galveston for a major restoration in 2022 and her long-term berth is being decided — check current status before expecting to board her.) Wear comfortable shoes and give yourself time; the ground here holds two centuries of Texas at once.