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Local History & Events
Palacios, known as the "City by the
Sea,'' is actually bordered on the east
and south by Tres Palacios Bay, which opens
into Matagorda Bay and the Gulf of Mexico.
Tres Palacios is Spanish for "three
palaces "and legend has it that both
the town and the bay were named after a
mirage seen by Spanish sailors over 300
years ago. They thought they say three palaces
on shore but these disappeared as they sailed
closer. It's a much more colorful story
than the real one: that the bay was named
after Jose Felix Trespalacios, Mexican governor
of the area when Stephen F. Austin established
his colony. Eventually the town became known
as Palacios and the pronunciation was Americanized
to" Puh-LASH-uhs" rather than
the proper Spanish Pa-las-ee-ohs.
Legendary Texas cattle baron Shanghai Pierce
once owned the land where Palacios is today.
His statue is now in a cemetery near Blessing,
about 12 miles north on SH 35. In 1901 the
land was bought from Pierce by The Texas
Rice Development Company. They then sold
the town site to their own subsidiary -
The Palacios City Townsite Company - in
1902. The following year saw the arrival
of a hotel, the railroad and a post office.
The next year a pavilion was built and the
seafood industry started. From the beginning,
Palacios' developers saw it as a coastal
resort -- after all, the two biggest construction
projects were the Luther Hotel (still in
operation today) overlooking the bay and
the pavilion (a version of which is also
standing today) at the end of a T-head pier
on South Bay.
Palacios boomed during World War II with
Camp Hulen, an Army training base where
thousands of troops trained before shipping
out to foreign battlefields. Hollywood's
finest came to entertain those troops and
stayed at the Luther (A signed photo of
Rita Hayworth still graces the lobby of
the hotel). The town's population reached
its high point of 15,000 during the war,
then declined after the base closed. Today
all that remains of Camp Hulen is a historical
marker on the western edge of town.
Palacios is in Matagorda County, which
gets its name from the Spanish word for
"lush growth." The county's roots
date back to 1685 when French explorer Robert
Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle sailed into
Matagorda Bay on his famous expedition and
founded nearby Fort St. Louis. Later, Stephen
F. Austin used the seaports of Matagorda
and Brazoria to build his new colony, one
of the state's original 23 counties. The
town of Matagorda was settled in 1829, and
the Republic of Texas created Matagorda
County in 1836. Palacios is truly at the
crossroads of history: It lies on the LaSalle
Odyssey Trail, the Chisholm Trail, the Great
Texas Coastal Birding Trail, the Texas Independence
Trail, the Lower Colorado River Trail, the
Texas Settlement Region Trail, and the Matagorda
County History and Heritage Trail. Historical
murals depicting aspects of Palacios heritage
adorn many buildings around town.
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