This coastal fort was built in 1897, named after the legendary frontiersman and folk hero Davy Crockett, who was killed at the Alamo in 1836 (who once quipped, “You may all go to Hell, and I will go to Texas.”).
The discovery of oil in Texas shortly before the First World War made the Gulf Coast and the port of Houston an enormously strategic area – and it therefore needed a stalwart defense system.
Fort Crockett was the headquarters of the Coast Defenses of Galveston, which also included the nearby Fort San Jacinto and Fort Travis. Together these forts were charged with protecting Galveston Bay and the Houston Ship Channel. Their artillery and battery-mounted guns guarded American shipping leaving and entering the bay, allowing valuable resources and supplies, such as oil and cotton, to be transported during the war.
Fort Crockett