More dignitaries than anyone in attendance could shake a stick at those gathered on Nov. 10, 1914 for the gala grand opening of the Port of Houston and Ship Channel.
Today the 25-mile-long waterway and the inland harbor it serves are taken for granted, as if both were somehow always there and not man-made marvels. But Houstonians and Texans in general would do well to remember that the second busiest port in the United States was the product of a herculean effort by their ancestors.
In January 1837, less than a year after the Battle of San Jacinto, a runt of a paddlewheel steamer called the Laura became the first vessel to master the twists, turns and natural obstacles of Buffalo Bayou on the hazardous voyage to the Allen brothers’ new town. Even though the last leg of the difficult trip from the settlement of Harrisburg measured only a dozen miles, it took the crew three full days to blaze a path through the underbrush and overhanging trees.
