DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it — Early Jackson County, straight from the historical record. Now settle in, because this stretch of Texas coast has been collecting stories for a long, long time. We're talkin' centuries of drama packed into one county.
Jackson County was organized in 1837, named for the seventh president of the United States, Andrew Jackson. That part's fairly recent, historically speaking. But the land itself?
That's a different story altogether. Long before any county lines got drawn, this region was the hunting grounds of the Karankawa Indians — and the marker does not mince words about them. Cannibalistic, it says.
So if you were a stranger passin' through, well. You'd want to keep movin'. And one stranger did pass through — a shipwrecked Spaniard named Cabeza de Vaca, who crossed this very region in 1528.
Shipwrecked. On foot. Through Karankawa territory.
The man had a rough go of it, and yet here we are talkin' about him. Then came the French. Explorer La Salle founded the first settlement in these parts — Fort St.
Louis, in 1685. The marker calls it ill-fated, and that word is doin' a lot of work. Some authorities place the site of that ill-fated fort at Dimmitt's Point, about twenty-one miles southwest of where you might be standin' right now.
Most of what became Jackson County lay within Stephen F. Austin's land grant. And in 1832, six members of Austin's Old Three Hundred colonists founded the first town — called Santa Anna.
That town later took the name Texana, and Texana became the predecessor of Edna. From Karankawa hunting grounds to a shipwrecked Spaniard to an ill-fated French fort to a handful of Austin's colonists layin' down the roots of a town — Jackson County was never short on history. It just kept arrivin', one hard chapter at a time.
What the marker says
Organized, 1837; named for 7th president of U. S., Andrew Jackson. Early hunting grounds of the cannibalistic Karankawa Indians, this region was crossed in 1528 by shipwrecked Spaniard Cabeza de Vaca. French explorer La Salle founded the first settlement,iIl-fated Fort St. Louis, in 1685. Its site is said by some authorities to be Dimmitt's Point (21 miles SW.). Most of what is now Jackson County lay in Stephen F. Austin's land grant. The first town, "Santa Anna," was founded by six members of Austin's "Old 300" colonists in 1832. The town, later named "Texana," was the predecessor of Edna.