Blackwater is a city in Galveston County, Texas, located along the Gulf of Mexico and Flat Iron Lake. Founded in 1809 by Josiah Blackwater, the town grew significantly in the late nineteenth century, evolving from a small trading post to an industrialized small city bolstered by nearby logging and mining activity. It is best known as the site of several gunfights, most famously the Blackwater Massacre of 1899, during which the Van der Linde gang robbed a riverboat and killed dozens, resulting in the town being locked down by Pinkerton agents in the months following. Presently, Blackwater draws most of its revenue from tourism.
History[]
Blackwater and its nearby plains are said to have been originally inhabited by Native Americans. The first instances of European contact occurred in 1528 when Spanish explorer Cabeza de Vaca and his crew shipwrecked on a nearby island. For much of three centuries, the region was part of the Viceroyalty of New Spain, and later Mexico, though it was never thoroughly populated by Europeans. With the onset of the Mexican War of Independence, American settlers poured into the region with the promise of land, including Josiah Blackwater, a famed explorer who founded a small settlement along Flat Iron Lake, eponymously named "Blackwater."
In its early decades, Blackwater was a small trading post and cattle ranch under Josiah Blackwater's cattle empire, home to no more than 200 people. During the Texas Revolution in the 1830s, Blackwater served as a lawless crossroads for skirmishes between the Texan and Mexican armies. When the United States finally took control over the region in 1845, Blackwater was officially designated as a settlement in the American frontier. Growth remained relatively stagnant as Blackwater took hold as a small trading post reliant on customers passing through. However, after significant reserves of precious minerals and ores in the nearby Tall Trees area were discovered, mining companies and settlers flocked to the region, spurring rapid growth.
By the late 1880s, Blackwater had undergone a transformative process of industrialization, businesses and immigrants flooding the region in search of opportunities. Spurred by the growing lumber and mining industries, government officials like Nathan Johns pushed to modernize Blackwater, constructing theaters, cobbling streets, and creating a uniformed constabulary. By then, Blackwater was hailed as the "Gateway to the West" by some. In 1898, plans were drawn up to built a grand plaza at the Blackwater City Hall, along with a railroad connecting the town to the rest of Texas.
The following year, in May 1899, the infamous Blackwater Massacre took place. A ferry coming in from New Orleans, carrying $150,000, was ambushed and robbed by the Van der Linde gang. However, the gang was intercepted by Pinkertons and policemen, who gunned down several members of Dutch van der Linde's gang. Ultimately, the gang successfully fled the town, stashing the stolen money in town, leaving dozens of deaths in their wake. In the months following, the town was placed on strict lockdown by the Pinkertons in a search for the missing $150,000, though they never found it. Blackwater quickly bounced back from the gunfight, though many note that the town was "never the same."
In 1905, Nate Johns was elected as mayor of Blackwater, and pledged to end lawless gunfights such as the Blackwater Massacre, doing so by increasing surveillance using agencies such as the Bureau of Investigation. Despite the town now becoming a small city, and still economically booming, Johns had been implicated for corruption while in office and an abuse of his power. Johns faced further scrutiny following a robbery of the First National Bank of Blackwater in 1911, led by Dutch van der Linde and his gang of Native Americans. The heist led to the death of an innocent woman and several policemen and agents, who were aided by former member of Van der Linde's gang, John Marston. Despite all of the pushback, Johns attempted to run for governor of Texas, though his scandals caught up to him by 1914, and Johns was forced to resign.
During World War I, Blackwater and its surrounding areas were used as training camps for the United States Army and Navy.
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