These Palmetto Pilings

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, the way I'd put it to you on the road. You're looking at something most folks drive right past without a second glance. These palmetto pilings.

Just stubs poking up out of the water, humble as fence posts. But sit with that for a moment, because what they represent is three generals, two wars, and a whole lot of somebody needing to move supplies across some very inconvenient Texas water. The marker calls them the remains of the Boca Chica Crossing, a railroad that ran from Boca Chica inlet all the way to White's Ranch on the Rio Grande.

General Francis H. Herron, U.S.A., began the work in 1864. He didn't quite see it through.

That fell to General Philip H. Sheridan, who completed it in 1865, all for the transportation of military supplies. Two generals, one railroad, built in the middle of a war.

Now, if that were the whole story, that'd be enough. But the marker's got more. Look about a thousand feet to the north, and you'll find cypress pilings.

Different wood, different time, different general entirely. Those are what remain of a floating bridge, constructed across Boca Chica Inlet by General Zachary Taylor, back in 1846. Taylor built it as part of the road running from Brazos Santiago to the White Ranch Landing and Clarksville on the Rio Grande, and again, for the transportation of military supplies.

Three generals left their mark on this same stretch of coastal Texas water, each one needin' to get from one side to the other, each one solving the problem the best way they knew how. The cypress held. The palmetto held.

And here they still are, quiet in the water, the State of Texas having seen fit to mark them in 1936. Some things outlast the urgency that built them.

What the marker says

These palmetto pilings are the remains of the Boca Chica Crossing of the Railroad from Boca Chica inlet to White's Ranch on the Rio Grande. Begun by General Francis H. Herron, U.S.A., in 1864 and completed in 1865 by General Philip H. Sheridan for the transportation of military supplies. The cypress piling 1,000 feet north are what remain of a floating bridge constructed across Boca Chica Inlet by General Zachary Taylor in 1846 as a part of the road from Brazos Santiago to the White Ranch Landing and Clarksville on the Rio Grande, for transportation of military supplies. Erected by the State of Texas 1936