Anahuac

Anahuac, the county seat of Chambers County, is on the northeast bank of Trinity Bay on the Texas Gulf Coast. The earliest inhabitants of the Anahuac area were Atakapan Indians. In 1721 French explorer Jean Baptiste de La Harpe visited a village of some 200 Atakapans located between the future site of Anahuac and Round Point. The site was originally known by Anglos as Perry's point, a name attributed to Col. Henry Perry, a noted filibuster, who established a camp there in 1816. Col. John Davis Bradburn, the newly appointed Mexican commander, arrived there in October 1830 with three officers and forty men to begin construction of a fort. Gen. Manuel de Mier y Terán, commanding officer of the Mexican states of Coahuila and Texas, officially named the town Anahuac in January 1831, after the ancient capital of the Aztecs.

Adapted from the official Handbook of Texas, a state encyclopedia developed by the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA). It is an authoritative source of trusted historical records.