DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker at Fort Anahuac tells it, and I'll do my best to give it the weight it deserves. Now, before this place was called Anahuac, it went by Perry's Point — and it kept that name until 1825. By then it was already serving as a port of entry for the early colonists making their way into Texas.
A busy, hopeful place. But 1830 changed the mood considerably. That year, the Mexican government decided it needed a firmer hand on this stretch of Texas, and so it established a military post right here — Fort Anahuac — sitting up on a high bluff at the mouth of the Trinity River.
Strategic? Oh, you better believe it. From that bluff, the fort controlled access to the East Texas settlements.
Whoever held Fort Anahuac held the key to a very large door. And they built it to last. Two eighteen-pound guns topped the bastion, whose brick walls ran seven feet thick.
Seven feet. The adjacent barracks were wrapped in walls four feet thick. And underneath it all, an underground tunnel led out to a nearby powder magazine.
This was not a suggestion. This was a statement. The purpose of the fort was twofold: collect customs duties, and enforce the law of April 6, 1830 — a law that put the brakes hard on further Anglo-American colonization.
You can imagine how warmly the settlers received that. Now, commanding all of this was Colonel Juan Davis Bradburn. And here is where the story picks up a sharp edge.
Bradburn conscripted labor and supplies from the colonists to build that very fort they were now meant to fear. He failed to control his own disorderly troops. And then, in 1832, he went a step further — he unjustly imprisoned William B.
Travis, Patrick C. Jack, and other settlers right here at the garrison. When Bradburn refused to release the men, armed conflict erupted between Texas and Mexican forces.
And that confrontation — right here at Anahuac — sent ripples outward. It sparked fighting at Velasco. It led to the adoption of the Turtle Bayou resolutions.
And in the end, it resulted in Bradburn's dismissal and the removal of Mexican troops from the post entirely. Today, the ruins of Fort Anahuac still stand. Quiet now, worn by time, but the marker calls them what they are — a physical reminder of events that kindled the drive for Texas independence.
Seven-foot walls and a powder magazine and the wrong man pushing too hard. That's how sparks happen.
What the marker says
Known as Perry's Point until 1825, Anahuac was a port of entry for early Texas colonists. In 1830 the Mexican government established a military post here to collect customs duties and to enforce the law of April 6, 1830, which curtailed further Anglo-American colonization. Situated on a high bluff at the mouth of the Trinity River, Fort Anahuac controlled access to East Texas settlements. Two 18-pound guns topped the 7-foot thick brick walls of the bastion. Four-foot thick walls protected the adjacent barracks, and an underground tunnel led to a nearby powder magazine. Col. Juan Davis Bradburn, commander of the Anahuac garrison, angered Texas colonists by conscripting labor and supplies to construct the fort and by failing to control his disorderly troops. In 1832 he unjustly imprisoned William B. Travis, Patrick C. Jack, and other settlers here. When he refused to release the men, armed conflict erupted between Texas and Mexican forces. The confrontation here, which also sparked fighting at Velasco and adoption of the Turtle Bayou resolutions, resulted in Bradburn's dismissal and the removal of Mexican troops from the post. Today the ruins of Fort Anahuac are a physical reminder of events that kindled the drive for Texas independence. (1976)