DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Lone Star Canal, out in Chambers County. Now, every good water story starts with somebody looking at dry ground and deciding that ain't how it's got to be. Berriman Richard Garland — born in Indiana in 1840, came all the way to east Chambers County — saw what the land was thirsty for.
Rice crops needed fresh water, and fresh water needed a way to get there. So Garland and a man named A. L.
Williams got to work in 1902, acquiring land, breaking ground, and constructing an irrigation canal that started right at the mouth of Turtle Bay — the place now known as Lake Anahuac. Two years of work, and in 1904 they made it official: the Lone Star Canal Company was incorporated. By 1906, E.
O. Emerson and Burt H. Collins were directing the business.
And here's a picture worth holding in your mind — sailing vessels anchored right next to the warehouse, loaded up with rice, carrying it off to market. There was something almost poetic about that. Almost.
Because the land had a way of fighting back. In dry seasons, salt water backed into Turtle Bay, crept right up into the canal, and killed the rice crops. All that work, undone by the slow creep of the Gulf.
So in 1911, the Trinity River Irrigation District formed with one purpose in mind: stop the salt. They built a dam and locks right at the mouth of the bay. Problem solved — for a while.
In 1914, Thomas S. Ellis changed the company's name to the Anahuac Canal Company. New name, steady operation.
And then came 1915. The hurricane of 1915 didn't negotiate. It destroyed the dam.
It destroyed the pumping plant. It destroyed the warehouse. All of it, gone.
The company changed owners several times in the years that followed, and eventually the whole operation went quiet — closed from 1927 all the way through 1932. But 1932 is where the story turns. Four men purchased the canal, dusted it off, brought back the name Lone Star Canal, and reopened operations.
The old name, the old purpose, a fresh start. By 1947, the Chambers-Liberty Counties Navigation District stepped in and purchased the canal — and today the water moving through it serves not just agriculture but industry too, with the whole aim of lifting the economy of the area. That canal has been killed by salt, battered by a hurricane, shut down, renamed twice, and resurrected more than once.
And it's still out there, moving water. Some things just refuse to run dry.
What the marker says
Berriman Richard Garland (1840-1918), a native of Indiana, saw the need for fresh water for rice crops in east Chambers County. Garland and A. L. Williams began in 1902 acquiring land and constructing this irrigation canal. It started at the mouth of Turtle Bay, now known as Lake Anahuac. In 1904, "Lone Star Canal Company" was incorporated. E. O. Emerson and Burt H. Collins directed the business in 1906. Sailing vessels anchored next to the warehouse carried the rice to market. In dry seasons, salt water backed into Turtle Bay and into the canal, killing the rice crops. To prevent the damage, the Trinity River Irrigation District formed in 1911 and built a dam and locks at the mouth of the bay. Thomas S. Ellis changed the name to "Anahuac Canal Company" in 1914. After the 1915 hurricane destroyed the dam, pumping plant, and warehouse, the company changed owners several times, closing from 1927-32. In 1932 four men purchased the canal, resumed the name "Lone Star Canal," and reopened operations. In 1947 the Chambers-Liberty Counties Navigation District purchased the canal. Water is available for industrial as well as agricultural use with the goal of improving the economy of the area.