Texas Tidbits: The Passport to Texas History! Celebrate and Learn!

A New Republic Was Born

As you may have noticed if you were reading this blog during February when did a two week series of posts on the Texas Revolution, 2011 marks the 175th Anniversary of the Revolution and the Texas Declaration of Independence. In honor of this historic occasion, the State of Texas has come up with an utterly brilliant idea. The Passport to Texas History. Texas Highways magazine urges you to "show your Texas colors by obtaining a “Passport to Texas History,” and have it stamped at seven sites associated with the Texas Revolution. If you collect stamps from all seven sites by December 31, 2011, you’ll receive a commemorative gift from the Texas Independence Trail Region..." San Jacinto-Museum.org has more great info on the seven sites mentioned above, which are sites along the Texas Independence Trail. (Download a PDF of the Texas Independence Trail brochure here) The sites are:

•  Gonzales - When Mexican soldiers tried to steal the settlers' cannon - the fight was on!

• San Felipe - Where Stephe F. Austin established his colony in 1823.  It was considered the social, economic and political center of the region.
• San Antonio - Five Catholic missions were built here in the early 1700s to convert the native popluation.  In 1836, defenders at the Mission San Antonio de Valero (Alamo) were defeated by Mexican soldiers and the battle cry "Remember the Alamo" was born.
• Washington-on-the-Brazos - Where representatives of Texas settlements met to make a formal declaration of independence from Mexico in early March 1836.
• Goliad - In late March 1835, Colonel Fannin's forces were imprisoned after surrendering in defeat.  They were then shot outside their prison cell in Goliad, marking this as the largest single loss of life during the days of the Texas Revolution.
• La Porte (22 miles east of Houston) - The San Jacinto Monument stands as the world's tallest memorial stone column on the site where Mexican rule over Texas came to a dramitic close on April 21, 1836.

Best of all? The Passport to Texas History is FREE and downloadable! Is that cool or what? This promises to be an adventure that you and your family will never forget. The feeling of being at the locations that played such a major role in Texas History and Independence where true Texas heroes fought and died for the dual causes of Liberty and Freedom. What a great experience this will be.

If I were back in Texas, I would teaching my little girls about the place where Daddy grew up and express to them how important it is to always stand up for their beliefs, like the men at the Alamo. An honorable death standing up for what is just, is preferable to the scourge of oppression. I want them to feel the pride when I explain what they are looking at and why it is a sacred place to so many of us. At this point, i'd like to leave you with a quote from John Steinbeck. "Texas is a state of mind. Texas is an obsession. Above all, Texas is a nation in every sense of the word." Amen, brother. Amen.