Huntsville Tour

The Huntsville tour is an 8-Hour tour, extending from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM. During this tour, you will learn about Huntsville and Sam Houston.

The drive to Huntsville is approximately 1 hour. The return trip is about 1.25 hours. The tour can sometimes include touring Old Town Spring.

Sam Houston lived from 1793 to 1863. He is the only person to have served as a governor of two different states: Tennessee from 1827 to 1829 and Texas from 1859 to 1861. He lived in Texas from 1833 until his death. He was the commander of the army of Texas during the War of Independence in 1835 to 1836, the hero of the Battle of San Jacinto on April 21, 1836, the first and third elected president of the Republic of Texas, serving from 1836 to 1839 and from 1842 to 1845, the first Texas US senator from 1846 to 1859, and then governor. He was deposed as governor in 1861 when he refused to take an oath of allegiance to the Confederacy, as he was a loyal American. He died rejected by the majority of Texans, but he was a profile in courage.

The following slideshow gives you just a glimpse of all that a tour of Huntsville offers! If you want more time to examine a picture, you can pause the slideshow by hovering your mouse over the image. Taking your mouse away will cause the slideshow to resume playing.

 

Huntsville was found in 1836.

All Texas prisoners are executed at the Walls Unit at the state prison in Huntsville.

Some of the highlights that you will see include:

• 7 feet tall Big Sam Houston on a 10-foot high base dedicated in 1994 at the Visitors Center. This is a good location to buy souvenirs and watch a couple films about Huntsville and the statue. This is the tallest statue of an American hero.
• The Sam Houston Memorial Museum including Sam Houston’s Woodland dogtrot home that Houston built in 1848, the Steamboat House from the 1850s where Sam Houston died, and several buildings on multiple acres.
• Downtown with the City Hall, Walker County Courthouse, Town Square, and the 1862 Gibbs-Powell Home.
• Sam Houston’s grave in Oakwood Cemetery. His slave Joshua (1826 - 1901) is buried close to him.
• Texas Prison Museum including Old Sparky. The museum was established in 1989.
• Sam Houston State University. Established in 1879.