Gonzales — The Birthplace of Texas Independence

In October 1835, a small Texan town on the Guadalupe River refused a Mexican demand to surrender a small bronze cannon, raised a hand-stitched flag reading 'Come and Take It,' and fired the first shot of the Texas Revolution. That town was Gonzales, and this one-day journey drives seventy-five minutes east to walk the ground where Texas independence began. You'll stand before the actual 'Come and Take It' cannon at the Gonzales Memorial Museum, built for the revolution's centennial; explore the outdoor Pioneer Village Living History Center, a collection of relocated log cabins and frontier buildings; and stroll the town's remarkable historic square, ringed by Victorian storefronts and the extraordinary 1896 Romanesque courthouse and the old jail with its intact gallows. Gonzales also mustered the only reinforcements ever to reach the Alamo — the thirty-two 'Immortal' men who died there. It is a day dense with the foundational mythology of Texas, told on the streets where it happened.