Tiny Town Tour - Navasota, Texas.

The small town of Navasota has a long and fascinating history going back to the 1600s. French explorer, René-Robert Cavalier, Sieur de La Salle, founder of Ft. St. Louis at present-day Matagorda, was killed somewhere near Navasota by his own men. Anglo settlers created a stage-coach stop in 1831 and established the town in 1858, with the arrival of the Houston and Texas Central Railway just prior to the Civil War. During the war, Navasota and nearby Anderson, provided cotton, shoes, guns and gunpowder to the Confederacy. After the war there were disastrous fires, a cotton warehouse explosion, a cholera epidemic and finally the 1867 yellow fever epidemic which devastated the small town. For approximately 50 years after Reconstruction, Navasota became the scene of numerous shoot-outs, prostitution and other criminal activity. From 1908 to 1911, 24-year-old Texas Ranger Frank Hamer was hired as City Marshall and he successfully cleaned up the city before going on to become famous in 1934 for shooting Bonnie and Clyde. Today the town has won awards for Preservation of its historic homes, fairs, excellent tours and shows at the Sunny Furman Theater.