Passport to Texas

Battleship TEXAS

Event/History: Celebrating Battleship TEXAS at 100 Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Wrap up spring break March 15 with a family to trip the San Jacinto Battleground State Historic site to celebrate the centennial of Battleship TEXAS.

08—The family festival that we’re going to have on March 15, is going to be a party the likes of which we probably haven’t seen out here before.

Andy Smith oversees the upkeep of the antique dreadnought (now a museum), which saw action in both World Wars. In addition to many family-friendly activities, there’s live music throughout the day, featuring headliner Robert Earl Keen.

08—He’s bringing his Texas Uprising, which is a music festival to the site. And he’s very excited to help raise the awareness of the ship.

Kelly Willis and Bruce Robison, Reckless Kelly and Charlie Robison join the lineup at the site.

21—We have a 12-hundred acre facility here; we’re going to have these festivities on and around the battleship – on the smaller side of the park. And it’s going to be a really great event. Tickets are available right now and can be purchased at battleshiptexas.org, and that’ll be march 15 starting at noon and running until 10 p.m. at San Jacinto Battleground State Historic Site.

Andy Smith says money raised from the event will fund much needed repairs to the 100 year old vessel. For more information and tickets go to battleshiptexas.org.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife, I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Battleship Texas in need of repairs

History: Battleship Texas Needs a Makeover Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

At 100 years old, Battleship TEXAS, moored in a slip at San Jacinto SP & HS in LaPorte, has seen better days.

06— TEXAS, being permanently moored at San Jacinto, we don’t have the capability of taking it to a dry dock.

The ship—now a museum—experienced one dry dock cycle since its 1948 arrival at San Jacinto. Andy Smith, who oversees the care of the ship, says years spent submerged in brackish water, resting atop mud, damaged the craft.

22— They weren’t able to patch all the leaks, and she slowly filled with water. Some of the internal structures are severely deteriorated, and that’s some of the work we’re doing right now: trying to repair those internal structures – but also her exterior. The shell plating – the hull – has so many leaks. And that keeps water coming in; water coming in creates more problems with deterioration on the inside. And it goes on and on.

Despite challenges involved in keeping this antique dreadnought repaired, the benefits of doing so are many.

14—It’s a nice bookend between the monument that commemorates the battle of San Jacinto and the battleship that commemorates both WWI and WWII. You have a broad scope of both world history, US history, and Texas history.

Next month we celebrate the centennial of this venerated vessel with a Texas Uprising.

09—The public family festival that we’re going to have on March 15 is going to be a party the likes of which we probably haven’t seen before.

Proceeds from the event will fund repair work on the Battleship… festival details tomorrow.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Historic image of Battleship Texas

History: Battleship Texas Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Moored in a slip at San Jacinto Battleground and State Historic site, Battleship TEXAS is impressive. Yet, looks alone don’t tell the whole story of this 100 year old military dreadnought.

05— When it was commissioned in 1914, it was the most powerful weapon on the face of the planet.

Andy Smith oversees the care of the ship, which boasts many firsts.

26—It was the first US Battleship to launch an airplane; the first US Battleship to get RADAR; the first to get anti-aircraft guns. It’s just amazing the amount of technological advances that occurred. When this ship first launched, they used kite balloons; so, basically [it was] a big old blimp that they strung from the end of the ship – and they used that to observe. By the time she was ready for decommissioning they were starting to use remote control
airplanes.

The ship saw action in both world wars, and earned the nickname “Lucky T”. During its more than 30 years of service, it was struck only twice by enemy fire; Helmsman, Chris Christiansen, was the sole casualty.

03—So it’s a pretty lucky ship when you think about it.

It was lucky in more ways than one. After WWII the US Military had a surplus of “machines of war.” The Navy offered namesake ships to their respective states and they scraped the rest.

18— Texans –being Texans – were the only ones that wanted their namesake ship; so, Texans raised the money to bring the Texas to San Jacinto Battleground. And it was decommissioned as a US Navy ship, and re-commissioned as the flagship of the Texas Navy at San Jacinto Battleground on April 21, 1948.

Where, today, it is a museum open to visitors.

That’s our show for today .. Funding provided in part by Ram Trucks. Guts. Glory. Ram for Texas Parks and Wildlife I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Barrington Farm Christmas

History: Time off in Early Texas Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

We have something in common with early Texans.

06 – Christmas and the month of December—in large part—was the time when Texans gathered.

Cynthia Brandimarte is program director for Texas historic sites. Unlike today when a short trip by car or plane will get us to our holiday destination, travel was difficult for early Texans.

09 – And so when you traveled, you tended to stay. People had time at Christmas to do that—to travel and spend weeks.

Which makes the few days that most of us get off at Christmas seem like a rip off. And early Texans made good use of this block of time.

08 – It was then that they celebrated not only Christmas, but other special events, and planned weddings for the month of December.

Since Texas was mostly rural in the 19th and early 20th Centuries, and there wasn’t a lot of farming that could happen in December…

15 – It almost gave 19th Century and early 20th Century rural Texans an excuse not to work. And thus to play a bit more, and socialize a bit more, than they had time to do many other months of the year.

How will you spend your time off this holiday season? How about making a little time to enjoy the great outdoors?

From all of us at Passport to Texas, we wish you a very Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year…For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Christmas Tree inside Saur-Beckmann State Historic Site

Texas History: Christmas Trees in Texas Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

The custom of decorating trees for Christmas took root in German villages during the sixteenth century.

07—A lot of Germans, as you know, settled Texas. And they brought a tradition with them of the tabletop Christmas tree.

Cynthia Brandimarte is program director for Texas historic sites.

12—When you look at interior photographs of Texas houses, you see many tabletop Christmas trees ornamented for the season, particularly in German households in the late nineteenth century Texas.

Ornaments were handmade then, and small gifts often dangled from branches. Eventually, the tabletop conifer gave way to larger trees that became “floor models,” and the decorations sometimes mirrored the day’s events.

22—You saw more and more seven or eight feet trees that were placed on the floor. And because we had just ended the Spanish American war in victory, there was a fashion in the early part of the twentieth century to decorate trees with a few American flags here and there. We have photographic evidence for that.

If you celebrate Christmas, we wish you a joyous holiday. And if you do not, then it’s the perfect opportunity to spend time in nature, because Life’s Better Outside.

That’s our show… we record our series at the Block House in Austin, Texas.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.