Tropical Trail Region

Palmito Ranch Battlefield State Historic Site

The Battle of Palmito Ranch was the final land battle of the American Civil War. It was fought May 12–13, 1865, along the banks of the Rio Grande, 13 miles east of Brownsville and 10 miles from the Union-held seaport of Los Brazos de Santiago at Texas’ southern tip. The battle, a Confederate victory, took place more than a month after Gen. Robert E. Lee’s surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia to Union forces and 13 days before the Army of the Trans-Mississippi under Gen. Edmund Smith surrendered in Galveston on May 26. There are historical markers nearby and a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service viewing platform with interpretive signage located at the intersection of Palmito Hill Road and Boca Chica Highway (HWY 4). There are currently no public services or facilities at this site. When visiting this site, watch for the marker as the site is largely undeveloped and not obvious from the road. Also, a good pair of walking shoes or boots is recommended.

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Tropical Trail Region

Laredo Center for the Arts

Reopening the doors of the old City Hall in historic Market Square in 1993, the Laredo Center for the Arts has brought back to life an historic building from the 1880s that was originally built to accommodate a market, a city hall, and a theater for the performing arts. The Center has four galleries for changing art exhibitions with the Community Gallery dedicated to the work of local student artists. There are year-round art events and exhibits.

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Credit: Carol M. Highsmith (Public Domain)

Fort Brown

FROM PROTECTION TO EDUCATION

Fort Brown, located in Brownsville, served as fortification against Mexican soldiers, Native American incursions, the Confederacy, the Union Army, as well as providing a front for the battle against malaria, all in the course of its decades of military activation. Established in 1846, Fort Brown remained in service until it was deactivated by the military in 1945. Named in honor of Major Jacob Brown who fought, died, and was buried on the grounds, the Fort is considered the first United States military post in Texas. An upended cannon on the grounds, placed by General James Parker’s Commission in 1920-21, reportedly marks the spot Major Brown died.

Although many of the later buildings survive today, only ruins remain of the original, pre-Civil War fort. At its beginning, the fort was composed of earthen walls more than nine feet high and surrounded by a ditch fifteen feet deep and twenty feet wide. Within a few decades, however, more permanent structures were built and many are still in use, including the Post Hospital, built in 1869. The hospital was also the location of significant yellow fever research by then First Lieutenant Wm. C Gorgas, an army physician, who defied orders by his superior officer and performed autopsies on soldiers who had succumbed to the disease. Gorgas succeeded in determining the vector of malarial infection and yellow fever (the mosquito) thanks, in part, to his research at Fort Brown.

Today the Fort’s surviving buildings and grounds are part of the campuses of the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College. Fort Brown was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1960.

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Pictured: Port Aransas Museum

Credit: Sandy Jumper

Port Aransas Museum

BOAT BUILDING CENTRAL

Barney and Fred Farley arrived on the Texas coast in 1910 and, within a few years, established the Farley and Son Boat Works in the island town of Port Aransas. The Farley’s boat building business had a singular purpose - to enable the brothers to develop a signature fishing boat designed to catch the tarpon, a favorite (and once plentiful) gamefish that had begun to draw anglers from across the country to Port Aransas for its sports fishing opportunities. Six decades of boat building followed, establishing the Farley Boat as an icon of Port Aransas and Mustang Island heritage.

Memorabilia and artifacts of the Farley’s enterprise as well as those from the Port Aransas sports fishing industry are now archived in the Port Aransas Museum, along with a collection of photographs and objects detailing the island’s history. The museum is housed in a restored 1900s “kit” home, popular with settlers arriving to Port Aransas and in need of building living quarters in a region where construction supplies were limited and scarce. The museum features the Fourth Order Fresnel lighthouse lens once installed in the nearby Lydia Ann Lighthouse from 1878 to 1952, over 12,000 photographs documenting Port Aransas history, and the bell from the train that brought the rocks to build the Mustang Island jetties. Visitors are encouraged to ring it.

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