Table of Contents
Introduction 9
Part I Prehistoric Texas Through 1519
What the Indians Saw in the Texas Sky in AD 1054 11
The Gulf Beach Was Distant Ten Thousand Years Ago 13
Mammoths Roamed the Texas Plains 15
Disease and Illness in the Americas before Columbus 17
All the World's Camels Came from Texas 18
Clues to the Earliest Humans in Texas 20
150 Stone Point Types Found in Texas Over Twelve Thousand Years 22
Corn Culture in the Americas Predates the Pyramids 24
Deep-Sea Fishing Forty-two Thousand Years Ago 26
Cahokia 27
The Complexity of Native Languages in the Americas 30
The Karankawa Were Long-Headed 31
The Karankawa Were Peaceful at Home 32
Part II The Spanish Colonial Period, 1519-1811
The First European Baby in Texas Was French 35
Alvarez de Pineda Explored the Gulf Coast Five Hundred Years Ago 37
Tragicomedy of La Salle's Colonists at Fort St. Louis 39
The Tenth and Final Expedition to Find La Salle 41
Texas Indian Population Was Large in 1800 43
The Mission and Presidio la Bahia Migrated Inland 44
The Streets of San Antonio Were Always Crooked 46
The Church and the Jacals of Refugio Mission in 1795 48
Few Towns in Texas until Austin's Colony 50
What Do We Really Know About the Karankawa? 52
Part III Mexican Texas, Colonization and Revolution, 1811-1836
Terán and Almonte: Spies from Mexico City 55
Stephen F. Austin's Militia Was Not a Killing Machine 57
First-Person Account of Arriving at El Copano in 1834 58
The Flood of Anglo-European Immigrants into Texas 60
The Declaration of Texas Independence Was Written in One Day 62
The Arms at the Alamo Were British on Both Sides 65
The Chase to Capture Santa Anna at San Jacinto 67
The Texas Revolution: The Mexican Side, in Their Own Words 69
Luck at the Battle of San Jacinto 70
Portraits of the Indians of Texas in 1830 72
Did Austin Colonists Exterminate the Karankawa? 74
Part IV The Republic of Texas, 1836-1845
Is Texas the Only Lone Star State? 77
The Reluctant Republic of Texas 80
Texas Was Once Bordered by Two Lawless1 Strips 82
The Old South Plantation Life in Brazoria County 84
Columbia: First Capital of Texas, 1836 85
Aransas City, Lamar and Copano Competed for Primacy 87
The Texas Rangers Meet the Colt Revolver 88
Comanche, Vaqueros and Rangers in 1844 Rodeo 90
Jack Hays Was a Legend in His Own Time 92
The Panic of 1837 Almost Sank the Republic of Texas 94
Houston Was a Boisterous Boom town Even Then 96
Daily Life in the Republic of Texas 98
Fun in the Republic of Texas 99
Too Much Spitting in the Republic of Texas 101
The Industrial Revolution Came Early to Texas 103
Part V The State of Texas, the End of the Frontier
What Dialect Do You Speak? 105
Borders of Texas Contested for 150 Years 107
The Last Slave Smuggled into Texas 109
The Chihuahua Trail Started in Indianola 110
This Book Saved the Lives of Settlers and Soldiers 112
Tobacco Crossed the Atlantic Three Times 114
The Cemetery: Last Relic of St. Mary's of Aransas 115
The Devil's Rope Marked the End of the Texas Frontier 117
Index 121
About the Author 125
