San Jacinto Battleground State Historic Site — Attraction in Channelview

This stop was pretty cool.  We stopped here on the 4th of July, around 11am.  It was cloudy, but still humid.  We walked up to the monument and it was so amazing to look up at.  The grounds were very well maintained.  The mosquitos were awful, but no fault to anyone, just noting it.  The small museum and gift shop inside were very cool.  Lots of cute little gift/memorial items at very reasonable prices inside.  Loved seeing all of the artifacts from the past related to Texas history and the monument inside.  Also, as a mom, loved that it was FREE!! There were options that you could pay for, but it just wasn’t in the schedule or budget this trip.  One option was to ride up to the top of the monument, which looked like a lot of fun.  The associates working here were amazing and very helpful and knowledgeable.  You could also drive through the grounds and read the plaques about the history.  While admiring the outside of the monument, there was an absolutely amazing Texas Parks and Wildlife associate who was so awesome!!  He interacted with my kids, told them about the little frog that he sees everyday and gave them facts about the frogs.  He asked them about their trip, really listened to them, and even gave us tips about staying cool and hydrated.  He told us some cool stories about the monument, the grounds and the USS Texas Battleship that we were about to go see.  He was so friendly and sweet!  Love that there are still people like that in the world, especially these days!  Great job TPWD employing amazing people like him!!! We made this trip our summer family vacation.  We purchased City Passes online, which was a great experience and we will be doing this again for the other locations offered by them.  So, on this trip, we visited NASA, the Houston Zoo, the Houston Aquarium, Kemah Boardwalk, the Holocaust Museum, a Galveston seawall beach, La Porte- Sylvan Beach, the USS Texas, and the San Jacinto Monument.  I wrote detailed reviews for all of these stops, so if interested, please...

Spent some time today at the San Jacinto battleground state park. It was a great place to visit and learn about Texas history. You can ride the elevator up to the top for a fee - I have enclosed pictures of the current prices. They also have a movie theater where they show a video also for a fee. And they have a museum that's free the walkthrough. And more importantly it's nicely air conditioned. One negative which is why I deducted 1 star, is that they have allowed a company to sponsor them and so half of the space for the museum is dedicated to that company's industry. I don't have any problem with that company or their industry however it doesn't seem like it really fits into the theme of learning about texas's history through this battleground. And to go go even further, when you get to the top, the observation deck is dominated with details about this industry rather than details about the battle itself. I was a little disappointed in that but over all it's a great place to visit, you can see the museum for free if you want to pay for the movie you can, if you want to pay for the observation deck you can. On the observation deck they have telescopes for rent and those penny smashing machines, so bring some ones or quarters. Nearby is the battleship Texas which I will review on a different entry. Walking around the battle ground itself you can see many many historical markers and you can see that area where Santa Ana surrendered or was captured and presented to general Sam Houston. It was really fun but in the Texas summer it is really hot so bring something to hydrate yourself with. Also they have picnic tables and there's plenty of shade so you could have a nice picnic if you wanted to be outside. We spent a couple hours here, had a great time, and the kids learned just a little bit more...

I don't regret visiting, but was somewhat underwhelmed. Pros: Large, well maintained memorial and grounds. You can see it from miles away, it's massive with a large reflecting pool and some walking trails. Plenty of free parking and not crowded at all. Staff were super nice and friendly, I think some of them were volunteers. There was a movie theater showing a well produced movie explaining the events and context of the San Jacinto battle once an hour. Really enjoyed the view of the surrounding area and the Houston shipping channel from the top of the memorial. I appreciated the information about what we were seeing from above, the tower was my favorite part. We also took a walk on the wooden boardwalk through the adjacent wetland and to our surprise came across a bright green snake on our path. Cons: For what you get, the admission price seems steep at 14.00. Besides the tower and the movie, there is only one small gallery with some artifacts of the battle, paintings and dioramas. The whole place feels rather dated and the elevator to the top of the tower is old fashioned and shaky. This is clearly one of the major projects built during the great depression, and it has the feel of a museum I visited as a kid on a mandatory school field trip. I think staff is really trying to make the site more relevant, the website is absolutely beautiful. The day we visited, there was supposed to be a family day with children's activities. It was a little sad that we saw no families with younger kids, only older couples. Staff convinced us to do one of the kids' crafts and we made a pretty yellow rose of Texas out of tissue paper. The site is now surrounded entirely by refineries, which also takes away from...