Gonzales
Side Trips:

Gonzales Side Trip
COST

Guadalupe River
TE photo

If you're visiting Gonzales for historic reasons, then a short side trip to Cost is in order.

Take Highway 183 South across the bridge over the Guadalupe River and turn right on Highway 97 for the short six-mile drive to Cost.

Cost has the distinction of being the town closest to where the first shot of the Texas Revolution was fired in October of 1835.

The First Shot Monument by Waldine Tauch
Photo courtesy Barclay Gibson, August 2011

Follow the road in back of the monument (Spur 95) to the actual site of the skirmish and yet another marker.

TX - First Shot of Texas Revolution marker

First Shot of Texas Revolution marker
Photo courtesy Barclay Gibson, August 2011

The boat ramp here has two small piers and makes an excellent put in point, if you remembered to bring your canoe. It's hard to believe this is the same river that caused such destruction in Gonzales and even worse destruction in Cuero in 1998.

Gonzales Side Trip
PIONEER VILLAGE

Pioneer Village
Courtesy Ron George AFAPG

Open Weekends (Saturday 10 - 5, Sunday 1 - 5), this 12 acre re-created village is just north of town on Highway 183. Nine structures moved from other parts of the county, represent life as it was in 19th Century Gonzales. The high point of the year is the "Come and Take It" celebration when actors portray "The Old Eighteen" and the Mexican troops in a reenactment of the august event of October 2nd 1835.

See Step back in time at Gonzales' Pioneer Village
by Murray Montgomery ("Lone Star Diary" column)

Gonzales Side Trips:
Lake Wood
Palmetto State Park
Gonzales Hotels