Driving along I-45 in Texas, right outside of Huntsville, I came across a towering statue of a colonial gentleman. Knowing he probably had some sort of historical significance to the area I pulled over to get educated and found out it was none other than Sam Houston. Who is Sam Houston you ask? Well, he was the president of Texas.
Let’s rewind back to 1836 when America was still an infant nation. Andrew Jackson was the President of the United States and Texas was a part of Mexico, won from Spain in its war for independence in 1821. Texas didn’t have much in common with it’s current country though. Most of the settlers were Americans who had traveled from the south to California looking for gold and had stopped in this territory.
In comes Sam Houston, a former American governor of Tennessee, who took lead of the settlers forming an American style government and becoming head of the Texan Army, fighting Mexico for its independence. Sam Houston was then elected President of the new “nation”. Even though Texas won the Battle San Jacinto and Mexico ended up leaving them well enough alone, they did not officially recognize Texas’ sovereignty. Because of this, Houston joined the American Senate and started lobbying for entrance into the union under President James K. Polk. This all lead to the Mexican American War with an American victory in 1848.
Closest Supercharger Huntsville TX 5.4 mi
148 I-45, Huntsville, TX 77340
Sam Houston Visitor Center
7600 TX-75, Huntsville, TX 77340
