Re-visiting the history of Goliad, Texas

  Since my last blog, a few of you commented on the header photo.  That was taken on one of our different visits to Goliad State Historic Park in Goliad, Texas…Dennis and I soooo enjoy this trip and we visited it for the first time in February, 2006…again in March, 2009, and one more time in February, 2012.  If  you have never been there, let me just say that it is well worth the trip if you are a history lover as we are.  The Goliad State Historic Park is where we love to stay. 

Above photos are from 2006, when we had our Cougar.  The park has 2 distinct camping areas…The first photo is the a lower level area that is basically a huge parking lot with grass on all sides, (water and electric).  We stayed there for one week the first time we went…The next week, we decided to move to the upper campground… the right photo..(full hook-up)..The upper level campground is right next to the mission.  The Mission Nuestra Senora del Espiritu Santgo de Zuniga is amazing…and if you camp here, you are steps from that mission and you can come and go into the mission any time it is open..all day long.

There often are school buses of kids touring and they always ring the mission bells…I love that sound…Right photo is the sanctuary of the mission.

Left is from 2009, with our Hiker…On the right is the choir loft of the mission…They still have events in the sanctuary….

Another great feature of this park is that you can walk into the town square of Goliad on a trail that goes through the woods..about 1 1/2 miles each way..

Left photo is part of the walking trail to town, and middle photo is the Goliad County Courthouse…Right is the “Hanging Tree” outside the courthouse..frequently used at one time in history..

Also within walking distance of the park is the Presidio La Bahia.  “The Presidio chapel still serves as a community church.  Our Lady of Loreto Chapel at Presidio La Bahia has served the spiritual needs of Catholics - Spanish, Mexican, Texas, American, in turn - since 1779. Even today, mass services are held every Sunday at 5:00 p.m. at the Our Lady of Loreto Chapel.”

Left is the entrance to the chapel and the presidio…middle is the sanctuary…and right is one of the cannons at the presidio…

  There is sooo much more to see…..”The presidio, the restored mission, the battleground where Fannin surrendered, Fannin's grave and the restored birthplace of Gen. Ignacio Zaragoza, the Cinco de Mayo hero, are stand-alone entities, each telling a narrow story.  Even Goliad's singular moment, the slaughter of Fannin and his men, is not given its due. The killing grounds -- three sites less than a mile from the presidio, where the Texans were held captive -- have never been thoroughly studied. And although more than 12,000 historical markers have been placed across the state, addressing everything from barbed wire to fruitcake, no marker stands on or adjacent to those blood-stained grounds.  Goliad is best known for what happened here on Palm Sunday, March 27, 1836, during the Texas revolution. Col. James Fannin and 341 of his men, after surrendering and being held captive for a week, were killed by Mexican troops under Gen. Santa Anna. That was nearly double the number of Texans killed three weeks earlier at the Alamo. The two events inspired the Texans' battle cry at San Jacinto, where independence was secured: "Remember the Alamo! Remember Goliad!"

I have sooo many photos of Goliad… We even went there for the Goliad County Fair once, which is held right across the road from the State Park Campgrounds…another place to walk to…I am going to do a couple of collages to finish this up…

I had to include the above two photos…These doors are from the Mission Espiritu Santo, and they are on opposite sides of the building..They both enter into the Mission sanctuary…Left is called “The Door of Life”, used for baptisms…Right is “The Door of Death”, where you entered for funerals….I found it very interesting that you could use the door of life, notice that it was open…but the door of death was chained so no one could enter…Rest assured that I did have to touch both so I could channel history ( my way of getting in touch with souls who lived in another time).

I hope any or all of you get to see Goliad Texas…It is waaaay at the top of our “Places to visit in Texas “ list, and I know we will do it again if we get down there!

McGuyver and “moi”…Goliad, TX…February 2006, with the ol’ Cougar..

WE LOVE THAT PLACE!!

“Ghosts are a metaphor for memory and remembrance and metaphorically connect our world to the world we cannot know about.”

                                                                                                          ~Leslie What