From the Gulf of Mexico to the heart of downtown, the Houston Ship Channel has proved to be a vital piece of the city’s growth for one hundred years. Through history, we can trace how Houston’s economic ethos has transformed a narrow, winding bayou into an international epicenter of import.
The Spring issue of Houston History, “Protecting Our Green Heritage,” explores the ways in which we have protected our precious greenspaces and waterways in the Houston and Gulf Coast region.
![CEC_Box46_Folder18_Founders[1]](https://houstonhistorymagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/CEC_Box46_Folder18_Founders1-e1363100805701-100x100.jpg "Terry Hershey, Community, and Action")
More than forty years ago, Terry Tarlton Hershey became the most visible representative of environmental action in Houston as she fought to preserve the natural beauty of Buffalo Bayou west of Shepherd Drive.
Galveston Bay is the most prominent geologic feature on the upper Texas coast. It is the state’s largest bay, covering about 600 square miles, situated in one of its most urbanized and industrialized areas.
This major green corridor, now close to 75% complete, will ultimately be thirty-three miles long and over 12,000 acres. Spring Creek comprises the liquid border between Montgomery and Harris Counties.
“We’re not against jobs. But, wouldn’t you rather have a company that comes in here and you get hired, but it doesn’t have an impact on you? It doesn’t pollute you, it doesn’t cause cancer in the community, no birth defects, tumors. That’s what we want. We want a clean environment.” – Juan Parras
There is a movement that places importance on knowing where food comes from for nutritious, environmental, and economic reasons. This trend has taken many forms, such as community gardening, schools gardens, farmers’ markets, and even restaurants that support local growers. The UH – Oral History of Houston has collected several interviews that document this endeavor. […]
Last fall the Jung Center sponsored a series of lectures called “Energy and the Soul of Houston.” My friend Beth Robertson persuaded me that I had something to say about energy, if not Houston’s soul. We agreed to share the stage.
The history of the oil industry in Texas is comprised of many elements. The towering wooden derricks, both cable and rotary, of the early twentieth century would give way to the even bigger steel-framed derricks of the 1930s and on.
Between June 1942, and November 1943, Baytown, Texas, became the backdrop to one of the most dramatic labor confrontations to rock the upper Texas Gulf Coast during World War II.
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