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128 urban water arteries This chapter grew out of a project in coordination with the National Park Service (NPS) to seek the designation of a National Heritage Area for Buffalo Bayou, the water artery running through Houston, Texas. According to the NPS: “National Heritage Areas are designated by Congress. . . . For an area to be considered for designation, certain key elements must be present. First and foremost, the landscape must have nationally distinctive natural, cultural, historic, and scenic resources that, when linked together, tell a unique story about our country.”1 Those of us involved in the project are convinced that Buffalo Bayou would make an excellent addition to the list of existing National Heritage Areas.2 In a broader sense, however, Buffalo Bayou represents an urban water artery not unlike those in other cities that link together the past and present history of a community . Such links include the location where early settlement occurred, a place marking key historical moments, an essential means of transport and commerce, and a recreational focal point. Buffalo Bayou has been all of those things and more. As the locus of the Houston Ship Channel (HSC) it represents a truly significant national site. In a recent conversation, historian John McNeill asked me if I realized that the ship channel and the Panama Canal opened in the same year, 1914. He suggested, and I agree, that in its own way the HSC has made an incredible mark on the world economy and our energy history—a mark rivaling many of the accomplishments of the Panama Canal. chapter six The Historical Significance of Houston’s Buffalo Bayou the historical significance of houston’s buffalo bayou 129 Indeed, the HSC was most responsible for making Houston a world-class “energy capital.” Such places can be defined as cities or regions with strong ties to energy industries and with strong roles in energy production, energy distribution , or energy technology. When we think about energy capitals we often think about them as centers for financial capital accumulation—profit centers— generating wealth for corporate entities or governments that draw that wealth from the production and sale of energy, and then they distribute it beyond the community where it was generated. This perspective, however, is too narrow. Energy-led development has shaped the evolution of many cities and regions, influencing metropolitan growth while changing patterns of energy consumption and concentrating the environmental impacts of energy production locally as well as in areas of consumption far removed from production facilities.3 Buffalo Bayou’s role in shaping Houston’s economic life is possibly the most dramatic but not necessarily the only way that a water artery can influence the development of cities and regions. The broader function—including its political, social, and cultural roles—is presented here, and with respect to the themes of water as a public utility versus a private commodity, this chapter focuses more directly on real estate speculation, commerce and navigation, and industrial development. The Historical Significance of Houston’s Buffalo Bayou Buffalo Bayou—running through the new city of Houston—was designated as the “National Highway of the Republic” in 1840. While this label was a bit of hype, the bayou would soon live up to the name as a major artery serving the Gulf Coast and the Texas hinterland. Many years later, Houston became known as the “Energy Capital of the World,” due in large part to its location along Buffalo Bayou. Also a bit of hype, this moniker again demonstrated the historical importance of this modest stretch of water. In 1836, the city of Houston was founded on land adjacent the banks of Buffalo Bayou. The waterway also was the site for a wide array of other historically significant events and activities in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries that shaped the state of Texas and influenced the nation as a whole. The most notable of these was the building of the HSC in 1914. But also important was the Battle of San Jacinto—fought along the bayou’s shores—that played the pivotal role in the struggle for Texas independence leading to the establishment of the Republic of Texas in 1836. Of additional note was the maritime activity along the bayou and naval engagements in Galveston Bay during the Civil War that led to blocking essential supplies sent from Texas to the rest of the Confederacy during the crucial last stages of the conflict. Two other somewhat disparate themes of regional importance—one related [18.191...

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