The Hawkins Ranch was established by
James Boyd Hawkins in 1846. It was a sugarcane plantation, with 101 African American slaves by 1860. In December 1863, during the
American Civil War of 1861–1865,
Confederate States Army General
John B. Magruder was inspecting coastal defenses in the area and "stopp[ed] awhile at Hawkins' plantation and other hospitable places." After the war, paid laborers were supplemented by convicts. In September 1887, there was an uprising of the African Americans near the plantation, as reported by
The Galveston Daily News. By the mid-1890s, the plantation had stopped raising sugarcane and started to be focused on growing corn, cotton, and raising cattle. In the wake of the invention of
barbed wire (in the late 1800s), the plantation gradually became more focused on becoming a cattle ranch. Orbit Petroleum operated gas wells on the ranch for several years. Gas wells were shut in by the
Texas Railroad Commission as a result of
Hurricane Rita in 2005, and they were reopened in 2007. ==Further reading==