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The Landing

In the early days of settlement in Texas (1820s-1830s) there were few roads, and the rivers served as the main avenues of commerce. Many planters built landings like this so their cotton could be easily loaded onto the river steamers. Other plantation commodities brought here might include game and cattle hides, tallow, corn, pecans, molasses, Spanish moss, and timber. Often a warehouse was built to shelter the goods awaiting shipment from the landing.

The arrival of the river boats at the landing drew other farmers and planters with their produce. A blacksmith might set up his forge to tend to the wagons and draft animals driven to the site. A saloon or a general store might be built by another enterprising person to take advantage of the potential customers drawn to the landing. Usually, one of these three businesses was the first to be built in a town, and the other two soon followed. A hotel, livery stable, or school was built and other businesses were added as a newly established community grew. Although the focal point for starting a new town might also be a ferry crossing or a river ford, rather than a landing, this pattern repeated itself many times in the early growth of Texas towns.

The steamboat traffic lasted until some years after the Civil War. Because the plantations ceased to produce as in former years, there was less demand for such service and the traffic declined. The coming of the railroads affected river shipping in two ways. They were in direct competition in hauling goods, and the railroad bridges across the drivers blocked the path of the steamboats, ending access to up river landings.

By the end of the 1800s, the few steamboats left on the rivers were operating only on the lower portions of these waterways. They carried goods on to Galveston and other coastal towns. The railroads bypassed this village, so wagons hauled goods to the nearest rail line.

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Please send comments to Historic_Village@baylor.edu. Updated Aug. 23, 2001.