Site of Post West Bernard Station

Post West Bernard Station was a repair shop as well as a depot. The Handbook of Texas says men there refurbished military arms: weapons seized from the Mexican army at San Jacinto and arms turned in by discharged volunteers at Camp Independence near Texana. The post also served as an alert point for any Mexican crossing at Mercer's Ferry on the Colorado, west of Egypt. That made it a guard post as well as a workshop. The inventory moved to the Houston Arsenal in 1838 and 1839, and the station's work ended.

What the plaque says

Site of Post West Bernard Station In the summer of 1837 Post West Bernard Station was established as an ordnance depot of the army of The Republic of Texas. Its location on the West Bernard River was strategic in protecting Houston, then capital of Texas, from possible invasion by Mexico. Cannons, rifles, muskets, powder, and shot were stored at the station. Troops under Lt. H. L. Grush and later Capt. Martin K. Snell maintained the post despite harsh living conditions. In 1838-39 this station transferred its inventory of ordnance to the newly completed Houston Arsenal. (1985)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge — 22 mi
  Ten thousand acres of native coastal prairie northeast of Eagle Lake, kept for a critically endangered grouse, many of whose birds are hatched in captivity and released here.
• Varner-Hogg Plantation State Historic Site — 31 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.

More markers nearby

• Site of Quinan Community — steps away
• New York, Texas & Mexican Railroad and The Community of Hungerford — steps away
• J. D. Hudgins Ranch — steps away
• Texas Gulf Sulphur Company-Newgulf — 3.9 mi