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Dick
Dowling Centennial Statue
after hurricane.
"Only the trees remain, no cemetery cedars or bushes."
- Sarah
Reveley, September 24, 2009 photo |
Getting
There
Head south from Beaumont on Highways 89/96/
287. After passing numerous prisons and the site of Spindletop
on your right, you'll pass the Nederland exits and come to the intersection with
highway 87. Take a right and drive until it intersects with highway 82. To the
south you'll see the easy-to-spot MLK
Bridge. Turn right here on highway 82 and this will take you into Sabine
Pass. Turning left would take you to downtown Port
Arthur. Long before you come to Sabine
Pass, you'll start noticing torn and twisted debris with an occasional stranded
boat on the horizon. As you enter Sabine Pass,
you can see that a lot of debris has been removed - based on the numerous bare
foundations and empty posts that once held signs.
The Sabine Cemetery
is just to the west of the town's main intersection while the battleground
is several miles south. To get to the battleground park, at the intersection
go right on 3322. This road follows the Sabine River estuary and is plied
by ships entering Port Arthur, the gas terminals and refineries or the Neches
River which passes alongside downtown Beaumont. |
 |
A
view of the Sabine River estuary at the edge of the battlefield.
TE photo,
July 2003 |
| Offshore
rigs are restored and refurbished just outside the park boundaries. The foreground
is the park itself - surrounded by orange construction-site fencing. As of March
2007 the boat ramp was accessible. TE Photo March 2007 |
| The battleground boat
ramp and parking lot is open although most of the visitor's area (including Dick
Dowling's statue) is currently surrounded by ugly flexible orange construction
fencing. The status of the once-numerous historical markers is not known. The
thing least affected by the storm is the grouping of WWII
era ammunition bunkers. |
| | Onward,
through the guano! A clean-shaven version of Dick Dowling photographed pre-Rita.
TE Photo 2003 | | |
| The
statue and pedestal inscribed with the names of Dowling's command. (Dowling's
niece once stated that this was her favorite statue of her uncle. She said that
she always hated the mustache on the Dowling
statue in Houston's Herman Park. TE photo 2003 |
Spanish
American War Marker
TE photo, March 2007 |
Historical
Marker - In Sabine Pass Battleground Spanish-American
War FortificationsAs
tension mounted between the United States and Spain during the late 1890s, U.
S. Representative Samuel Bronson Cooper of Texas recommended the War Department
begin plans for the defense of the strategic Sabine
Pass area. Maj. James B. Quinn of the Army Corps of Engineers in New Orleans,
was authorized to direct construction of two forts on land granted by Augustus
F. Kountze. Work on the batteries was under way by May 1898, one month after the
formal war declaration. Military efforts were coordinated with area residents
by government engineer J. L. Brownlee.
Although the emplacements were
soon completed, the shore guns were never part of military action here. The Spanish-American
War ended December 10, 1898, with the signing of the Treaty of Paris.
Later
efforts were made to locate permanently a military installation at the site following
the war. The plans were dropped, however, by 1901. In 1913, fifteen years after
the war, the fortifications were the site of a tragic accident, in which a Sabine
boy was killed when an abandoned ammunition cache exploded. Evidence of the fortifications
has been severely damaged by hurricanes, but the site remains a symbol of an important
era in U. S. history. |
| The road south from
the battlefield is an unpaved road that eventually reaches the site of Sabine
City, which existed only to the Civil War. The town then moved inland creating
Sabine Pass. This road passes a Coast Guard
station and several shrimpboats which have been raised but are not yet seaworthy.
|
One
of the shrimp boats on the way to the battlefield.
TE photo, March 2007 |
| The decommissioned
Sabine Pass Lighthouse (below) is visible across the marshes on the Louisiana
side. The faded paint and weathered cement give it a watercolor effect even when
viewed in full sun. |
The
decommissioned Sabine Pass Lighthouse
TE photo, March 2007 |
| The
Old Sabine Pass Lighthouse is included in this oil painting that now hangs in
Port Arthur's Museum of the Gulf Coast
TE Photo 2003 |
Sabine
Pass Battleground State Historic Site InformationSabine
Pass Battleground State Historic Site is a Texas Historical Commission property
Hours
Open: Daily, 8 a.m.–5 p.m.
Closed: Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas
Day, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day
Admission Fees - Free |
First published March 2007
Updated August 2010
Copyright John Troesser |
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