The Flight of the Saltire

[Panache]

OH MY!

Why do I have the feeling that The XMTSAS Saltire is someone is going to wind up leaving Texas with a new warp drive and phaser banks installed?



Z,

Glad she made it to you. I look forward to see her with your entourage

Cheers

Jamie :ootd:

[Livingston]

Mark, please don't corrupt the wee Saltire too much. Remember, she is still young.

[AFS1970]

Wow, that is one fast blimp. I ha thought the eastbound trip from Scotland to California would take much longer, with perhaps a stop in China of somewhere else in the far east.

If the majestic Zeppelin makes it's way to the US East Coast, I would be willing to host a landing stop.

[Zardoz]

Well, after viewing the historic stops the wee airship has made, I thought I would take it on a little tour of Texas history,

Todays stop, Stephen F. Austin State Park at San Felipe de Austin, the colonial capital of Texas. About 45 miles West of Houston.


Founded in 1823 by Stephen F. Austin at the river crossing of the Atascosito Road that connected San Antonio to Louisiana, San Felipe de Austin served as the capital for the colony Austin established in Mexican-owned Texas. As empresario, or land contractor, to the Mexican government, Austin oversaw the distribution of almost 6 million acres of land in Texas. San Felipe soon became the second largest town in colonial Texas. It had stores, inns and taverns, and blacksmiths, gunsmiths, watchmakers, hatters, tailors, cobblers, lawyers and bakers—served the area from their San Felipe shops.
The Texas Gazette began publication in San Felipe in 1829 as one of Texas' first newspapers, and the first book ever published in Texas came from its press that same year.





San Felipe served not only as the political center of the Texas Revolution, but also in a key military role. After the Mexican army defeated the Texian troops at the Alamo commanded by San Felipe attorney William Barret Travis, Santa Anna ordered his armies to converge on San Felipe. The Texas army commanded by Sam Houston fell back to San Felipe, and Houston ordered a further retreat toward the east. The San Felipe militia refused to abandon the town, so Gen. Houston ordered them to defend the ferry crossing, and as a last resort, burn it and the town. On March 29, 1836 the entire town of San Felipe de Austin was put to the torch. Unable to cross the Brazos River at San Felipe, Santa Anna and his army turned southward, ultimately crossing downstream at Fort Bend. The two armies would meet two weeks later at San Jacinto, and Texas independence was won on that battlefield.


Memorial obelisk to Stephen F. Austin. Fashioned from native Texas pink granite and funded by Austin County school children. Erected in 1928.


The Father of Texas surveys his colony in this bronze statue erected after the 1936 Texas Centennial.


The original town well, restored in 1928.


The 1840s Josey Store building, restored in the 60's and opened as a museum on the site.


A replica of Stephen F. Austin's first home and land office, built for the 1936 Texas Centennial. Austin only ever had two homes in Texas, both in San Felipe. In the late 1820s, Austin moved to the outskirts of San Felipe to a new home in the "garden lots", it was burned during the 1836 Texas Revolution. Austin wrote in the last few weeks of his life it was the only home he had that he could call his own.

In December 1836, Austin was serving as the Secretary of State in the new capital of Columbia (now known as West Columbia) where he caught a severe cold, his condition worsened and Austin died of pneumonia at noon on December 27, 1836, at the home of George B. McKinstry right outside of what is now West Columbia. Upon hearing of Austin's death, President Sam Houston ordered an official statement proclaiming: "The Father of Texas is no more; the first pioneer of the wilderness has departed."

[cessna152towser]

Fabulous pics and an excellent history lesson.

[Jock Scot]

Brilliant Mr Z, my knowledge of Texan history is limited to The Alamo and very little else. Have you sampled it yet?

[Scott West]

Jacksonville, Florida is prepared to receive the XMTSAS Saltire! Please keep me in mind when she rides the currents to the "littler latitudes"! Palm trees, sandy beaches and Guinness (and a few Coronas w/limes) await!!

Scott West
swest8181@yahoo.com

[BoldHighlander]

Cool!

I had cousins (Scobee/Scobie) on my father's side who were part of "Austin's 1,000" (the original colony families), but I never got to visit this area when I traveled Texas a few years back. Thanks for posting these photos!

[Zardoz]

Thanks guys! It had been a while since I'd visited San Felipe, and I enjoyed the trip. Sorry I didn't get any shots of me with the airship, I didn't think to bring a tripod, and I was alone at the park. On the good side it was a nice morning, and I took the time to wander about the area and read all the markers etc..I'm generally pretty unsentimental, but as a proud native Texan I never fail to be moved when I consider the events that unfolded at places like that.

I'll have a couple more stops in the Texas history tour, plus some other things of interest coming up!

(Oh and Jock, not yet! )

[Zardoz]

Today I took the Saltire on the next stop on the Texas Independance Trail, Washington On The Brazos, the birthplace of the Republic of Texas.



When delegates representing Texas settlements met at San Felipe in 1835, the citizens of Washington had hoped this "consultation" would be held in their town. They argued Washington was centrally located for all delegates, as the town’s ferry serviced the heavily-traveled La Bahia road, and the Brazos River was navigable from the coast. Soon the provisional government, who had been using an unfinished San Felipe hotel as a meeting hall and lodging, called for a convention to be held at Washington beginning March 1, 1836. If you're wondering; Washington, Texas was named after the town of Washington, Georgia, the hometown of several of the first settlers.



I guess the the San Felipe digs were pretty bad, because the convention that drew up the Texas Declaration of Independence met in a unfinished gunsmith's shop!



The granite obelisk marking the birth of a new country.


This is a replica of the Texas 'Independence Hall' built on the site of the original, in the 1930s.


59 delegates piled into a hall like this and signed the Texas Declaration of Independence on March 2nd 1836. The Declaration was produced, literally, overnight because while it was being prepared, the Alamo in San Antonio was under seige by the army of Mexico. The delegates were a diverse collection of folks, they came from a total of five foreign countries (Mexico, Canada, Scotland, Ireland and England) and twelve different US states. Only two, Jose Francisco Ruiz and Jose Antonio Navarro, were "native Texans" the rest were relative newcomers. Only ten of the delegates had been in Texas more than a few years prior to 1836, fifteen had come in 1835.


Elsewhere on the grounds are this nice visitor's center,


and the Star of the Republic museum, which is star shaped when viewed from the air.


In one of the gardens I saw this tribute to Ron Stone, an Oklahoma native who came to Houston in the early 60's. He was a Houston TV reporter and news anchor for over 30 years, and host of 'The Eyes of Texas' a cultural anthology TV series, till his death in 2008. He loved Texas and our history. He was also a neighbor of my family's, and I went though school with his son.


Even though their season is pretty much over, there were a few scraggly looking Bluebonnets hanging on around the park.

Till next time...