Wednesday, April 26, 2023 - 3:47pm
By Alexandra Dedovitch
In the days when Texas travelers needed protection from warring Native American tribes, wagons sought safe passage as they expanded westward, and camels roamed the region as an experiment for military transportation, Texas military forts were a pinnacle of importance for the Texas frontier. Although long deserted from active duty, these 3 famous Texas Forts...
Friday, March 10, 2023 - 9:55am
By Margo McCutcheon, Educator, Sam Rayburn House State Historic Site
If you ever tell someone that you think you were born in the wrong era and that you’d rather live at some point in the past, you might take a minute or two in your actual timeline to consider all the factors surrounding that era of the past you think you’re so fond of. Being from Texas, I suggest one of those factors...
Wednesday, March 8, 2023 - 1:30pm
Jesse James Mack was born to York and Ola Jammer Mack on June 3, 1950 in Matagorda County. At the time of his birth, Jesse’s parents were living on the grounds of the Levi Jordan Plantation. York Mack worked as a ranch foreman for Harry Martin, a descendant of Levi Jordan.
Jesse’s father died suddenly, shortly after Jesse was born, and his mother Ola moved off of the plantation not...
Monday, March 6, 2023 - 3:03pm
The significance and shape of the land now known as San Jacinto Battleground State Historic Site has evolved over time. Prior to the battle that ended the Texas Revolution, this place was a frontier cattle ranch; in the aftermath, it was a bloody wreck. Between 1899 and the 1930s, the state acquired parcels of land for a historical park. In this...
Friday, February 10, 2023 - 10:22am
By Margo McCutcheon, Educator, Sam Rayburn House State Historic Site
Many of us have items made in another country. Trade between parties near and far isn’t a new phenomenon, as the vague school memories of the Silk Road tickling your brain right now can attest. Refusing to go against basic human nature, the Rayburn family acquired things made in other places around the world because...
Monday, December 19, 2022 - 11:59am
By Margo McCutcheon, Educator at the Sam Rayburn House State Historic Site
Sam “Mr. Sam” Rayburn was alive just 61 years ago. To some people, that may seem akin to a million years ago, but historically speaking, it’s just a blip on a very large radar. That’s such a short while ago, really, that some visitors to the Sam Rayburn House State Historic Site share personal stories about Mr....
Thursday, November 17, 2022 - 10:55am
By Margo McCutcheon, Educator at Sam Rayburn House State Historic Site
What do you think of when you imagine an archeological artifact? Old bones and clay pots? Tools and weapons from a time long gone? The jar for that medicine you don’t want anybody to know about?
All of these things can be archeological artifacts if they are unearthed in a few years. According to the National...
Tuesday, October 11, 2022 - 1:53pm
After Texas gained independence from Mexico in 1836, the Republic of Texas found itself in dire straits. The Republic was heavily in debt from the revolution and its newly won freedom remained precarious. The Mexican congress refused to recognize Texas independence as outlined in the Treaties of Velasco, signed by the imprisoned President Antonio López de Santa Anna. The threat of reconquest...
Monday, October 10, 2022 - 4:01pm
By Brooklyn Pfennig, Intern at the Sam Rayburn House
On summer days, especially those of late July, with its 100-degree weather and blistering sunshine, I love to reminisce and think of the days of March and April when it rains. I find myself on days like those curled up with a blanket and a delightful book, listening to the weather outside and immersing myself in wherever the book...
Monday, September 19, 2022 - 8:27am
By Kirby McLeod, Intern at the Sam Rayburn House
Biographers D.B. Hardeman and Donald Bacon recall a meeting with Sam “Mr. Sam” Rayburn in December of 1956. On the day in question, the biographers note the lunch prepared by Medibel Bartley and Martha Rayburn Thomas (longtime cook Bobbie Erskine Phillips had passed away earlier in the year) consisted of fried pork shoulder, pork sausage...
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