The San Jacinto Battleground State Historic Site is located at Battleground Road in La Porte Texas. It is within minutes of downtown Houston is also home to the Battleship Texas and the San Jacinto Monument and Museum. It is open to the public from 9am to 6pm daily.
The Battle of San Jacinto was fought here in 1836 binging Texas independence from the Mexicans. Due to the great historical importance of the battle this 1,200 acre site is of state, national and international significance, which has earned it National Historic Landmark status. The primary aim of the site is to commemorate that battle and preserve the battleground.
The stand out feature of the site is arguably the San Jacinto Monument dedicated to the heroes of the Battle of San Jacinto and all who contributed to the independence of Texas. Completed in 1939 at a cost of $1.5 million, it took three years to build and is a 570 foot shaft with a 34 foot star on top, which symbolizes the Lone Star Republic. The monument is listed as the tallest stone column memorial structure in the world and is 15 feet taller than the Washington Monument in Washington, DC.
Visitors with a head for heights can take an elevator ride up to the observation tower, which is open between 9am and 5.45pm. With a view from 489 feet up it is possible on a clear day to see many square miles of the surrounding area, including the historic battleground, the Battleship Texas, the marsh restoration and boardwalk, the Buffalo Bayou and the Houston Ship Channel. A two and a half mile hiking tour of the battleground enables visitors to see the site with a minimum of back tracking, including a visit to the San Jacinto Monument, and will help give participants gain a better understanding of the events leading to the battle with eventual independence for Texas.
It is here that the San Jacinto Museum of History is located, which is open to the public from 9am to 6pm. The museum has a collection of more than 100,000 objects, 250,000 documents, 10,000 visual images and a library consisting of 35,000 books. The collections contain over four hundred years of early Texas history spanning from the Spanish conquest through to Texas in the 19th century.
Also housed at the site is the Battleship Texas, which was commissioned in March 1914 and is the only surviving US ship from both World War I and World War II. In 1948 the ship became the first battleship memorial museum in the United States, and was presented to the State of Texas and commissioned as the flagship of the Texas Navy in that same year. It is open to the public from 10am to 5pm daily and offers visitors the chance to learn more about the ship's history with details of the battles it was involved in at both World Wars.
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