SocraticGadfly: I hate to rain on Texas mythology…

March 04, 2007

I hate to rain on Texas mythology…

But I don’t hate it that much

The visitor center at Washington-on-the-Brazos State Park, where Texians declared independence from Mexico March 2, 1836, has one glaring error.

It claims Texas is the only state to have been an independent republic before joining the Union.

WRONG!

Historians and avid residents in Vermont (the Vermont Republic of Ethan Allen’s Green Mountain Boys) California (the Bear Flag Republic just before Anglos in northern California and an overzealous John C. Fremont heard about the U.S. declaration of war on Mexico) and Hawaii (an 1893 “pineapple republic” of Anglo planters, including old man Dole, overthrew Queen Liliʻuokalani in an attempt to force American annexation, which Grover Cleveland refused to do.) Heck, California’s state flag even says “California Republic” on it.

So, if we’re going to have Sam Houston IV at Texas Independence Day ceremonies talking about the need to get more Texas history in schools, let’s make sure it’s the right history.

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