Navasota, Texas Navasota, Texas Navasota City Hall Navasota City Hall Location of Navasota, Texas Location of Navasota, Texas Navasota is a town/city in Grimes County, Texas, United States.
The populace was 7,049 at the 2010 census, rising to an estimated 7,476 in 2015. In 2005, the Texas Legislature titled the town/city "The Blues Capital of Texas", with respect to the late Mance Lipscomb, a Navasota native and blues musician. Navasota is positioned in southwestern Grimes County, east of the Navasota River, a tributary of the Brazos River.
Texas State Highway 6 passes through the easterly side of the town/city as a four-lane bypass, dominant northwest 22 miles (35 km) to College Station and south 21 miles (34 km) to Hempstead.
Texas State Highway 105 passes through the center of Navasota, dominant southwest 25 miles (40 km) to Brenham and east 41 miles (66 km) to Conroe.
Houston is 71 miles (114 km) southeast of Navasota.
According to the United States Enumeration Bureau, the town/city has a total region of 7.4 square miles (19.1 km2), of which 0.04 square miles (0.1 km2), or 0.47%, are water. Navasota was established in 1831 as a stagecoach stop titled "Nolansville".
Its name was changed in 1858 to Navasota, a name perhaps derived from the Native American word nabatoto ("muddy water"). After September 1859, when the Houston and Texas Central Railway assembled into the town, Navasota became meaningful as a shipping and marketing center for the encircling area.
When close-by Washington-on-the-Brazos protested the coming of the rails, the old historic town forfeited its geographic advantage, and it began to diminish as many of its businesses and residences began a sure migration to the new railhead 7 miles (11 km) to the northeast athwart the Brazos River at Navasota.
All amid the Civil War, all the marketable goods produced in the region were brought to Navasota, then the furthest inland railhead in Texas, to be shipped south to Galveston, where it could be transported by steamboat from the Texas coast and up the Mississippi River to the war accomplishment, or exported to Mexico or overseas to Europe.
Navasota suffered a series of disasters in the mid-1860s that severely depleted its population.
As many Navasota people, including the mayor, fled to escape the disease, the town populace dropped by about 50 percent.
In the late 1860s the KKK spread into Navasota, and on one occasion a tense tumultuous between federal soldiers and a crowd of small-town white people occurred there. During these days, Navasota was considered a wild and wooly place, where it was not considered safe for women and kids to go downtown in broad daylight.
Perhaps the greatest and most publicized violence was around the turn of the century, amid the diminish of the Populist Party in Grimes County, and the re-election accomplishments of Populist candidate Garrett Scott for County Sheriff. A man who spent his entire life in Grimes County, Scott had great charm and political skill.
Scott, and Navasota lawman John H.
At least the WMU stopped short of assassinating the Scott women who spread their bodies over their wounded husbands and sons in the militia wagons which carried them to Navasota and by train to Houston.
Scott railwaylong enough to willfully divest his territory in the county and to bring a prosperous lawsuit against every merchant in the county (this was the only way to oppose the secret membership of the WMU as after Nov 7, 1900, to do company in the county belonging to the WMU was required).
In 1908, Navasota was a lawless boom town, wracked by violence: "shootouts on the chief street were so incessant that in two years at least a hundred men died." 24-year-old Frank Hamer resigned from the Texas Rangers to turn into the City Marshal and moved in and created law and order. Hamer faced down, chased down, and beat down the Navasota toughs until the streets were quiet, and kids could once again go downtown.
In 2012, the Navasota town/city council voted to commission a small-town sculptor to erect a statue of Frank Hamer in front of the new town/city hall building.
In 2009, Navasota was chose as a "Visionaries in Preservation" town/city by the Texas Historical Commission to protect the various historic structures in the city.
The town/city of Navasota earned a 2011 Gold Leadership Award from the Texas Comptroller's Office for accomplishments in transparency.
Navasota was one of 70 (out of over a thousand) metros/cities in Texas to receive the Gold status.
In 2012, Navasota was titled by the Union Pacific Railroad as a "Train Town USA". In August 2013, Navasota was titled a Go Texan "Certified Retirement Community" by the Texas Department of Agriculture. Navasota is served by the weekly Navasota Star newspaper, which covers the town/city of Navasota and its encircling communities, and by the Navasota Examiner newspaper, which has been reporting on the goings-on in Grimes County since 1894.
The town/city is also home to the Navasota News 1550 AM, owned and managed by Bryan Broadcasting, which broadcasts the small-town Navasota Rattlers football games.
In 2013, the British documentary universal known as Vague Direction visited Navasota and featured small-town inhabitants Misslette The Singing Cowgirl and Steve Stribling, a small-town hog trapper. Navasota has some shops and artisans in its historic downtown district, typified by antique, gift, and junk stores homed in old classic contemporary and brick structures, and live plays at the Sunny Furman Theatre.
Navasota Blues Alley is in the heart of the downtown district, and offers blues memorabilia, exhibition exhibits, art, vintage music and radios, and much more.
Navasota retains a number of historic Victorian homes on Washington Avenue, the chief residentiary and commercial thoroughfare through town.
Another historic edifice is Brule Field, a natural amphitheater assembled out of native contemporary by the Great Depression-era Works Progress Administration. It served as the major grid for the small-town high school football team, the Navasota Rattlers, until the new stadium was constructed in 2006.
The Blues Bluebonnets & BBQ music festival is held in April, celebrating the birthday of Mance Lipscomb. A summer festival, the Navasota Bluesfest, every second weekend in August in the Blues Capital of Texas, honors the memory of blues man Mance Lipscomb, who recorded various albums and lived in Navasota all of his life.
A statue of Frank Hamer stands in front of town/city hall, honoring the time he served as town/city marshal, connecting to the time Mance Lipscomb was his buggy driver.
The United States Postal Service operates the Navasota Post Office. Frank Hamer, Navasota town/city marshal and Texas Ranger Rene-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, French explorer who was killed near present-day Navasota in 1687 Bowen Loftin, a Texas A&M University president who was a graduate of Navasota High School USS Navasota, titled after the Navasota River Wikimedia Commons has media related to Navasota, Texas.
"Geographic Identifiers: 2010 Demographic Profile Data (G001): Navasota city, Texas".
"Navasota's credentials check out".
Navasota, TX from the Handbook of Texas Online "Navasota, Texas Awarded Membership in Union Pacific's Train Town USA Registry".
"Navasota memorabilia for municipal building".
"Navasota to Host Blues Fest".
City of Navasota Municipalities and communities of Grimes County, Texas, United States
Categories:
Cities in Texas - Cities in Grimes County, Texas - French Texas - Populated places established in 1831 - 1831 establishments in Texas
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