§ 660 Acre Park in Victoria Texas

There are several historical signs such as this one seen below, in the park...


MARGARET THERESA ROBERTSON WRIGHT, the "Mother of Texas"

Margaret Theresa Robertson Wright was born in New Orleans in 1789 to a French Mother and English father. In 1805 at the age of 16, she married James Williams Hayes and settled in Opelousas, Louisiana with whom she had two daughters and a son before Hayes died in the War of 1812. She eventually arrived in Texas and surviving another marriage and having two more daughters, she became a part of the De Leon Colony. It was during the Texas Revolution that she earned a reputation for courage by secretly aiding survivors of the Goliad Massacre. Hiding William L. Hunter, who made his way to her ranch, she took care of him until after the Battle of San Jacinto. She also located other hidden refugees while pretending to go for water at the Guadalupe River. There she secretly supplied them with food, medicine and even a gun she stole from Mexican soldiers encamped on her land. She would hide these articles in a water pail and the Goliad survivors would leave her notes. She did this until the men were well enough to join up with the Texas army. Sam Houston while delivering a gubernatorial campaign speech cited Margaret Wright's heroism and called her the "Mother of Texas" for the outstanding bravery and care she had given the Goliad survivors in their darkest hour of need.

Margaret's story, however, does not end there. Her marriage to John David Wright was not a happy one. In fact, he abandoned her to seek shelter in the Rio Grande Valley in order to escape an old debt incurred in Mississippi. Upon hearing of her land acquisitions and subsequent deeding a portion of them to her son Peter Hays, he sought to nullify her actions in court. But the court ruled he had abandoned his wife and granted her possibly the first divorce issued in the State of Texas. Unfortunately, Peter was shortly thereafter, ambushed and killed with John David Wright suspected of the murder. Margaret eventually sold her ranch and moved to Victoria, where in October of 1878, she died and was buried in Evergreen Cemetery.

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The Trail and golf course...









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Duck Pond and Fountain - and cypress tree KNEES -link

...besides the fountain and pond, golf course and nature trail, in the park there are picnic areas galore, a memorial rose garden, a disc golf track, ball field, stadium, historical homes around the edge, historical cemetery, river [guadalupe river], and zoo.

I'll conclude my photo album in the upcoming post...the river and the small zoo.

§ Curious George....

A short post today! I left mid morning Friday [a late start for me] to drive to Refugio, Texas so I could walk Lions Shelly Park. Well, it was gated...closed. And they had several parks' employees mowing and doing work on the park grounds. I decided to drive another 50 miles to Victoria Texas so I could go to Riverside Park and walk the long Nature Trail, and check out the Guadalupe River for maybe some flooding [our Nueces River is out of its banks since they opened the flood gates up north at the dam on the reservoir]....anyway, I took many pictures of the park and golf course, the zoo, the river and fountain. But, I got home late in the afternoon, and didn't have time to upload my pictures from the camera to the computer...I will choose just these two from the Texas Zoo which, since I left home late, by the time I walked in the zoo entrance it was past noon...so most animals were hidden within their individual compounds in shade...sleeping probably. The zoo is within the Riverside Park. An Emu  it was very curious so I dubbed him George....

First Game of the Baseball Playoffs with Astros pitted against the Red Sox is tonight [13th].....Go ASTROS!!!!

§ Independence Trail [Part II]

...to continue the day trip along part of Texas's Independence Trail, this post is dedicated to the birds seen inside the Texas Zoo in Victoria, Texas. Some were free roaming while others, caged, were mostly raptors that had been injured and remain impounded for the rest of their lives. A sad situation for nature's finest, but still, they're not road kill or left out in some open field to perish unnecessarily, which could've been the case. Those of us who visit zoos oftentimes feel that this is cruel punishment, but in most cases, it keeps the species alive and perhaps reproduce to keep the gene pool going and not extinction. Besides, we learn so much, scientifically, this way...

Herring Gull [pink feet and very large!] - Roseate Spoonbill


White Tailed Hawk [one partial wing 'missing'] - Emu


Fan Tailed Pigeon [?} - Black Bellied Whistling Ducks


Female Peafowl - Fan Tailed Pigeon [?]


Golden Eagle - Sandhill Crane


Red Tailed Hawk - Bald Eagle


The Mammals of the zoo were seen in PART I

Part three will be posted as soon as I can get the images resized for blogging....it will be the historical battleground that was part of Texas Revolution/Independence.  Coming soon.

§ Independence Trail [part I]

Bud and I drove up to Victoria, Texas some days ago with a purpose of,  on our return trip back home, finding and exploring Coleto Creek area and Fannin, Texas, to do a walk-about at the Fannin Battleground, along the Texas Independence Trail.  While in Victoria, we drove into one of the most pretty parks in the whole state of Texas!.....Riverside park.  So many times, I've wanted this very park in OUR town.  I could spend each and every day in this pristine, well-kept, beautiful park with the Guadalupe River, the nature trails, the wildlife, the golf course, the ponds, some historical buildings nearby.  For most of the morning, we traversed along the riverbanks!  On this particular day the morning was sunny, the river was running slowly, the hawks above the tree line were screeching, the bird song was heard most everywhere in the dense trees along the banks.  Nearing midday, we decided to enter the zoo.  The Texas Zoo, housed within the park grounds, is one enjoyable walk exhibiting mainly animals that cannot survive in the wild because of injuries sustained, or other exotic pets that we humans, selfish enough to want something 'wild' that cannot be tamed, donated,  and find themselves in need of the facility.  You can walk the zoo perimeters  in about an hour's time and see most all mammals and bird life here....

I'll share some photos in a multi-part posting.  The first part will be the mammals seen within the compound.

Kristal, the Bengal Tiger - Aesa and Gaia, the Lions


Victoria, the Grey Fox


Coyote and White Tailed Deer


Little Man, the White Nosed Coati - I'm guessing this is an Alpaca [because of the ear shape]


Female Jaguar  - her name is Sophia [on breeding loan from Maryland]

Jax, the Jaguar.  He and Sophia were introduced in 2016.  Jax is the mascot of University of Houston  From the zoo's curator:  "JaX comes from Mato Grosso, Brazil, and he's a beautiful sub-species of jaguar," said Michael Magaw, Texas Zoo animal curator. "Being that they are endangered species, we have initiated a breeding program to help the population."

Meeko the Raccoon and Ringo the Ring-tailed Lemur


Diaz, the Golden Handed Tamarin -and- Bonnie the Ocelot


C. C. and Buddy Lee - Black Handed Spider Monkeys

This is just a part of the mammals seen...along with these, there were tapirs, javelinas, wolves, ring-tailed cats, skunks, other monkeys, different coatis, badgers, bobcats, reptiles, turtles, and more...



Part II will be some of the birds seen at the zoo. Coming soon to a blog near you...