Pheasant

Pheasant, also known as Pheasant Switch, was six miles north of Palacios in southwestern Matagorda County. It was a railroad stop on the New York, Texas and Mexican Railway, which was built through the area to Palacios in 1903. The railroad, now abandoned, ran parallel to what is now State Highway 35. Pheasant reportedly was named from its northern settlers' misnomer for the local prairie chickens. At one time Pheasant, which primarily shipped cattle and rice, had a one-room railroad station. Sometime before 1925 it had a school that also hosted nondenominational church services; the building had been moved from the Ohio Colony. The school was eventually consolidated with Tidehaven Independent School District. By the late 1940s the station at Pheasant was gone, and only a few scattered farms remained. By 1958 Texas Eastern Gas Pipeline Company had begun operating near the community. In the 1980s two families still resided at Pheasant, which was not labeled on the 1989 county highway map.