Navasota, Texas
| Navasota, Texas | |
|---|---|
| City | |
Navasota City Hall
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| Nickname(s): The Blues Capital of Texas | |
 Location of Navasota, Texas |
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| Coordinates: 30°23′N 96°5′W / 30.383°N 96.083°WCoordinates: 30°23′N 96°5′W / 30.383°N 96.083°W | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Texas |
| County | Grimes |
| Area | |
| • Total | 6.1 sq mi (15.9 km2) |
| • Land | 6.1 sq mi (15.8 km2) |
| • Water | 0.0 sq mi (0.0 km2) |
| Elevation | 217 ft (66 m) |
| Population (2000) | |
| • Total | 7,602 |
| • Density | 1,239.02/sq mi (428.5/km2) |
| Time zone | Central (CST) (UTC-6) |
| • Summer (DST) | CDT (UTC-5) |
| ZIP code | 77868, 77869 |
| Area code(s) | 936 |
| FIPS code | 48-50472 |
| GNIS feature ID | 1375099 |
| Website | City of Navasota |
Navasota is a city in Grimes County, Texas, United States. The population was 7,049 at the 2010 census. In 2005, the Texas Legislature named the city "The Blues Capital of Texas," in honor of the late Mance Lipscomb, a Navasota native and blues musician.
Navasota is located west of Texas State Highway 6. State Highways 105 and 90 intersect with State Highway 6 in Navasota, with the city located between Houston and College Station, Texas.
Navasota was founded in 1831 as the stagecoach stop of Nolansville. Its name was changed in 1858 to Navasota, a name perhaps derived from the Native American word nabatoto (“muddy water”).[1]
After September 1859, when the Houston and Texas Central Railway built into the town, Navasota became important as a shipping and marketing center for the surrounding area. Whereas nearby Washington on the Brazos protested the coming of the rails, the old historic town forfeited its geographic advantage, and it began to decline as many of its businesses and residences began a sure migration to the new railhead across the Brazos River at Navasota.
Slaves were a large part of the local economy, as they were imported, traded and used to work in the many local cotton plantations. Guns were made in nearby Anderson, and cotton, gunpowder, and shoes were made, processed and stored there for the Southern Confederacy during the American Civil War. By 1865 the population was about 2,700. All during the Civil War, all the marketable goods produced in the region were brought to Navasota, then the furthest inland railhead in Texas, to be shipped south to Galveston, where it could be transported by steamboat from the Texas coast and up the Mississippi River to the war effort, or exported to Mexico or overseas to Europe.
Navasota suffered a series of disasters in the mid-1860s that severely depleted its population. In 1865 a warehouse filled with cotton and gunpowder exploded after it was torched by vagrant Confederate veterans; the blast killed a number of people and started a fire that destroyed much of the original downtown, and damaged many buildings, including the post office. Not long afterward the town was struck by a deadly cholera epidemic, which was followed in 1867 by an even more dangerous epidemic of yellow fever. As many Navasota citizens, including the mayor, fled to escape the disease, the town population dropped by about 50 percent.
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