Bryan Mound

The sulfur at Bryan Mound was known by 1911, when investors took an option on its leases, but turning it to profit took a legal fight. Eric Swenson of National City Bank formed a syndicate that bought the mound and the surrounding land. Union Sulphur, which controlled the Frasch patents, sued to stop them, and an appeals court ruled the remaining patents did not cover the work. In 1912 the syndicate founded Freeport Sulphur and a townsite company, and output reached about 1,500 tons a day in the First World War. The site is restricted private property.

What the plaque says

Bryan Mound During the first decade of the 20th century, mining engineers discovered sufficient quantities of sulphur deposits at Bryan Mound to lead to the organization of the Texas Freeport Sulphur Co. in 1912. The commercial production of sulphur at Bryan Mound was largely responsible for the development of the Freeport townsite. Employment of a liquid extraction procedure to mine the sulphur, known as the Frasch process, signified one of the earliest uses of this method in Texas. The Bryan Mound operation closed in 1935, after having produced 5 million tons of sulphur. (1968, 1986)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge — 11 mi
  Coastal prairie, salt marsh and bays between Freeport and Christmas Bay, where an auto tour along Big Slough passes wintering geese, ducks and wading birds in the tens of thousands.
• Levi Jordan Plantation State Historic Site — 17 mi
  A sugar and cotton plantation on the San Bernard River whose enslaved builders and their descendants left one of the best-preserved African American archeological sites in Texas.
• Varner-Hogg Plantation State Historic Site — 23 mi
  A Brazos sugar plantation built by enslaved people for the Patton family, later leased convict labor and Hogg family oil, now told through Rachel Patton and Sarah Ford.
• Galveston Island State Park — 32 mi
  A cattle ranch willed to the state that now runs the full width of Galveston Island, from two miles of Gulf beach across dunes and prairie to the marshes of West Galveston Bay.

More markers nearby

• Colonel Robert M. Coleman — 3.4 mi
• Velasco Methodist Church — 3.4 mi
• Site of Town of Old Velasco — 3.5 mi
• Four Miles Southeast to the Original Town of Velasco — 3.6 mi