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For area to prosper, Brazos had to be tamed
Published November 7, 2005
A RIVER'S COURSE: Second in a four-part series exploring the history and future of the Brazos River
Coming Tuesday: The shoreline is paying for man’s changes
Man went toe-to-toe with the Brazos River in the 19th century as businessmen and government officials chased dreams of safe navigation.
But the reluctant river fought back, restoring itself to its natural state each time.
It took decades for the see-saw of nature’s might and man’s power to equalize. The balance paved the way for commercial success but had unintended consequences.
The potential
As the state’s longest river, the Brazos empties directly into the Gulf of Mexico, which made it an attractive trade route. But it had several pitfalls.
Rapids, fluctuating water levels and a shifting sand bar that blocked its mouth stymied its chances of becoming reliable for navigation, according to Lynn Alperin’s “Custodians of the Coast: A History of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at Galveston.”
To make the area competitive, the state and private companies sank money into river improvements.
The Galveston and Brazos Navigation Co. dug a channel from the mouth of the river to Galveston Bay in the 1850s.
Maintaining the canal was expensive. The company abandoned it to join the railroad boom.
The Texas Legislature joined the effort with funds for $60,000 in improvements along 250 miles of the river in 1857.
But the river’s currents erased the work in 20 years and Houston railroads became magnets for trade north of West Columbia, Alperin wrote.
Congress invested $40,000 in 1880 to build jetties at the river’s mouth, but engineers couldn’t find a way to keep the jetties from sinking and stopped the project in 1886.
Other attempts to tame the river’s mouth in following years failed.
“As a competitor with the Port of Galveston, only 45 miles away, I do not believe the Brazos River will ever amount to much unless some additional advantages are given to it,” wrote Maj. Earl I. Brown, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Galveston District engineer, in 1912.
THE “FREE” PORT:
But 1912 was the turning point, as a huge stock of sulfur was discovered at Bryan Mound.
A group of New York businessmen formed the Freeport Sulphur Co. and laid plans for a port that would charge no cargo fees.
The “free” port would be surrounded by industry with a nearby town created for workers across the Brazos River from Velasco. Freeport was born.
“It was definitely a town built on saltgrass,” said Beverly Nixon, Brazos Historical Society president. “It didn’t have levees or anything.”
Mining at Bryan Mound began in November 1912, attracting more boats and railroads.
Seeing the boom, the Corps of Engineers took a renewed interest.
Dredging was done but was a costly routine. Engineers settled on damming the river seven miles upstream, and carving a new channel straight toward the Gulf of Mexico.
Congress approved the project in 1925. Dredges began working on the diversion, with the final cut made in September 1929.
Meanwhile, Freeport Sulphur Co. built hotels and other facilities in the young Freeport. Its population steadily grew as more workers came to town, Nixon said.
The newly-formed Brazos River Harbor Navigation District and the Corps of Engineers enlarged and deepened the old river channel several times.
Dow Chemical Co. arrived in 1939, building more homes and facilities for its workers in Freeport, Nixon said.
The city’s population grew to 6,000 by the mid 1950s, surpassing its sister city, Velasco, according to the Texas State Historical Association’s New Handbook of Texas.
The two cities merged in 1957.
“The history is important in that two major industries really founded the city,” Nixon said.
Today, Port Freeport is the nation’s 12th largest port, handling more than 25.9 million tons of cargo annually, according to port statistics.
CHANGES:
The new low-maintenance channel had the desired effect by attracting the chemical industry cluster that developers envisioned.
But with the Brazos’ flow diverted down a straight channel, the amount of sediment reaching Surfside Beach and Quintana was reduced.
Coastal erosion accelerated as a result, which the cities are working to reverse.
Michael Smith is a reporter for The Facts. Contact him at (979) 849-8581.
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