Neal and Bernie's Excellent Adventure: South Texas Museum

Anyone that reads this blog knows we (I) love South Texas. The area stirs something in my soul and in different times I know it would have been my home. Times are what they are and we’re blessed to be able to call it home for a few months each winter.

A couple of weeks ago we went to The South Texas Museum and learned a lot more about the history of the area. The museum takes S. Texas from ancient times to the nuclear age and explores it’s, sometimes very violent, history.

Their architect designed the foyer to offer a Big Texas feeling as you enter. The foyer is three stories, high. It's all wide open with a big old chandelier hanging from the middle. Made me think I should have had my boots and spurs on. You have to go upstairs via a magnificent double staircase. Definitely a Texas kind of entry.

This is the sign that greets you as you enter.

Then you are welcomes by this little, ancient, fish. I didn't measure it but it has to be 25' maybe more. It is a replica of an actual fossil found in the area.

As centuries passed the water receded and the animals moved in. They were all really big and one of them was the ancient Mammoth. This little fellow is copied from another fossil and he to is an actual size replica. Fortunately for other wildlife he ate plants. When a good lookin Mammoth came around it must have been quite a battle those tusks are HUGE.

The Europeans arrived and slowly the native tribes who had been here for more than ten thousand years disappeared over the course of about 300.

There is a great display of Spanish ship models. By today's standards they are so small but in those times these HUGE boats criss crossed the Atlantic all the time.

Two of the reasons the Europeans were so successful in the Americas were their horses and their weapons. I never really thought about how they got their horses here, in fact I never actually realized that horses aren't native to North America. They only got here in 1519 with early explorers. Our wild horse populations are actually horses that have escaped or been released over the last 500 years.

This is how they brought them over on those HUGE sailing ships.

In calm seas they allowed the horses to stand but in rough water they suspended them in slings, as depicted here. Hoses don't have very good sea legs so to keep them from falling and being hurt they hung them up and let them swing. My bet is there were a lot of very sea sick horses. It sounds like they likely ate a lot of horse meat on those boats because many of them did not survive the journey.

These two pistols from the early 1800's got my attention.

This little guy startled me pretty good. As you wander through you can hear a growling BIG cat but he's nowhere to be seen until you finally look up and there he is about 4 feet overhead in a rather shadowy space looking right at you. A couple of quick heartbeats later I grab a picture. :-) The picture is with a flash, in the museum he is very dimly lit.

Please be kind enough not to ask about this. Let's just agree that I lost the bet. So _______ (you know who you are) the picture is posted. The bet did not involve picture size.

This is an actual cart from back in the 1800's.

The suspension systems weren't very sophisticated at that time

The museum then takes you through the steam boat era on the Rio Grande River. The displays were too big for me to get any pictures worth posting. I don't think a steam boat could navigate the Rio Grande today but for about 30 years they did prior to the arrival of railroads in the valley.

There is a great deal of space dedicated to the Texas, Mexico, wars. The battles fought and lives lost on both sides is mind boggling in today's world. Back then it was just the way things were. They talk about the civil war and slavery. The Alamo. Santa Anna and his, often successful, raids to the North. There is a lot of blood stained land in S. Texas and nobody can ever say she didn't earn and pay for her place in this world.

The display covering the Texas Rangers was enlightening. Originally they were a pretty rough bunch of guys and their system of JUSTICE was rather "quick and dirty." They do however get well deserved credit for keeping things honest for a long period of time. Based solely on their pictures in the museum you wouldn't want to cross them.

This is an actual Pearl Handle Texas Ranger pistol used by a "Special Texas Ranger" during prohibition. I don't know what "Special" meant.

Being Canadian I have always thought of Canadian Rum Runners during Prohibition. We found out at the museum that the Mexicans were running their tequila North as fast as we were running our whiskey South. The authorities had as much trouble on the S. border as they did on the N. On the Mexican border the Texas Rangers carried the majority of the work load.

Confiscated Tequila.

We spent about 3 hours in here and walked the whole thing. We would certainly would have to go back, to even begin, to absorb the information contained here. Well worth the trip. If you happen to find yourself in Edinburg Texas plan to spend some time there, it's worth it. http://www.mosthistory.org/

On the way out they have a couple of Saw Horse Saddles. Of course we had to try them out.