thumb|Chambers County Library
Anahuac ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Texas on the coast of Trinity Bay. The population of the city was 1,980 at the 2020 census. Anahuac is the county seat of Chambers County and is situated in Southeast Texas. The Texas Legislature designated the city as the "Alligator Capital of Texas" in 1989. Anahuac hosts an annual alligator festival.
History
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File:General Thomas Jefferson Chambers House, Anahuac, Texas.jpg|House of General Thomas Jefferson Chambers
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The Mexican term Anahuac comes from Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs. The name means "place beside the waters." Anáhuac is the pre-Columbian name of the Valley of Mexico and its former lake basins around Mexico City, often including the Lerma and Pánuco river systems. Despite the name, neither the city of Anahuac, Texas, nor the immediate region were ever part of the Aztec Empire.
The first dwellers in this area were the Atakapan people as well as the Caddo. The first colonist settlers arrived in 1715, The Burkhalter and Morehead families. They established a small settlement near what is now Lake Anahuac. In 1721, Frenchman Jean Baptiste de La Harpe reached this area. In the 19th century the area became known as "Perry's Point", after Colonel Harry Perry, who erected a military post here in 1816.
Two major events in 1832 and 1835, known as the Anahuac Disturbances (caused mainly by rogue bandits termed "Texians" from the Brazos Valley area), helped to precipitate the Texas Revolution that led to the separation of Texas from Mexico. One of these events was the jailing by Mexican authorities of William Travis for illegal slave importation, and the other was unfair taxation and duties on river traffic to the settlers by the Mexican authorities.
In October 1830, Mexican Colonel Juan Davis Bradburn established a customs post atop the same bluff where Perry had camped. Bradburn's orders specified that the new post be named Fort Anahuac. The soldiers erected two large kilns to produce bricks to build a more permanent fort. Fort Anahuac would still be intact today had it not been for the locals using the bricks for their own home construction soon after the Texas Revolution; virtually all bricks were taken and none remain to this day. By March 1831, Anahuac comprised 20 houses and seven stores. The town grew quickly. Soldiers were given 25 cents per day to use for food and other supplies, and they spent the money locally. By June 1, the town comprised over 300 civilians and 170 military personnel.
In 1862, a small Confederate outpost was established nearby.
The 1935 discovery of the Anahuac Oil Field and the Monroe City area oil field brought a period of economic development. The Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge, later renamed the Jocelyn Nungaray National Wildlife Refuge in 2025, was established southeast of the city in 1963 by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. In 1989, the local chamber of commerce organized the first Gatorfest, which attracted 14,000 people into the Fort Anahuac Park, and it has been held annually since then. The festival has expanded every year since, and in 2010 hosted the largest festival, with more than 30,000 people attending.
In 2019, Atlas Air Flight 3591, a cargo flight operating for Amazon Air, crashed in the Trinity Bay, near Anahuac, while flying from Miami to Houston.
Geography
Anahuac is located near the center of Chambers County at the northeastern end of Trinity Bay and the southern end of Lake Anahuac. The mouth of the Trinity River into Trinity Bay is just west of the city. Lake Anahuac is approximately 33,348 acre-feet it was constructed by the Burkhalter family in 1953.
Texas State Highway 61 follows Washington Avenue and Miller Street in Anahuac and leads east and north to Interstate 10 at a point east of Houston and southwest of Beaumont.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city of Anahuac has a total area of , all land.
Climate
Ecology
thumb|[[Jocelyn Nungaray National Wildlife Refuge, formerly Anahuac NWR]]
Southeast of the city of Anahuac is the Jocelyn Nungaray National Wildlife Refuge (formerly the Anahuac NWR) which is popular among birdwatchers because almost 250 species of birds (see external link) have been reported there. Jocelyn Nungaray NWR is home to several species of marsh birds called rails including yellow rail, clapper rail and black rail.
Demographics
2020 census
As of the 2020 census, Anahuac had a population of 1,980, 712 households, and 539 families. The median age was 36.7 years, 25.0% of residents were under the age of 18, and 17.2% of residents were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 96.2 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 97.5 males age 18 and over.
There were 712 households in Anahuac, of which 36.7% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 47.1% were married-couple households, 16.2% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 28.8% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 24.0% of all households were made up of individuals and 11.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.
{| class="wikitable"
|+Anahuac racial composition as of 2020<br /> (NH = Non-Hispanic)
!Race
!Number
!Percentage
|-
|White (NH)
|1,071
|54.09%
|-
|Black or African American (NH)
|329
|16.62%
|-
|Native American or Alaska Native (NH)
|9
|0.45%
|-
|Asian (NH)
|16
|0.81%
|-
|Some Other Race (NH)
|12
|0.61%
|-
|Mixed/Multi-Racial (NH)
|73
|3.69%
|-
|Hispanic or Latino
|470
|23.74%
|-
|Total
|1,980
|
|}
{| class="wikitable"
|+ Racial composition as of the 2020 census
! Race !! Percent
|-
| White || 59.1%
|-
| Black or African American || 16.7%
|-
| American Indian and Alaska Native || 0.7%
|-
| Asian || 0.8%
|-
| Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander || 0%
|-
| Some other race || 13.7%
|-
| Two or more races || 9.0%
|-
| Hispanic or Latino (of any race) || 23.7%
|}
2000 census
As of the census Anahuac High School is the local high school.
The Chambers County Library in Anahuac is a branch of the Chambers County Library System. It is located at 202 Cummings Street, Anahuac, Texas 77514.
Residents of Anahuac ISD are zoned to Lee College.
See also
Citations
Sources
External links
- City of Anahuac official website
- Anahuac Area Chamber of Commerce
- Bird Sightings at Anahuac NWR