Rice Culture in Colorado County
Eagle Lake, Colorado County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The rice industry did not spread into the coastal plains region west of Houston until the very end of the 19th century. In 1898, Captain William Dunovant (1845-1902), a local plantation owner and entrepreneur, planted 40 acres of rice at the southeast corner of Eagle Lake (2.5 miles south) as an experiment, using convict labor from a nearby prison farm to construct levees and harvest the new crop. The small tract produced such encouraging results that in 1899 Dunovant built a pumping plant on the lake and irrigated 250-300 acres. The second venture proved so successful that over 30,000 acres of rice were under cultivation in the Colorado River Valley in 1900, and over 56,000 acres in 1901, mostly in Colorado County. Rice quickly replaced cotton and sugar cane as the primary cash crop in Colorado County. That the crop had a widespread economic impact was reflected in the increase in property values, the influx of new families, the reclamation of abandoned croplands, the rise in new railroad construction, and the rapid development of allied service industries, such as rice mills and irrigation and canal companies. Rice and the culture it supports continue to be a major economic factor in Colorado County.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In 1898 Captain William Dunovant, a local plantation owner, gambled forty acres near Eagle Lake on an experimental rice crop, using convict labor from a nearby prison farm to build the levees. The results were so encouraging that within two years more than 30,000 acres of rice grew across the Colorado River Valley, and rice swiftly displaced cotton and sugar cane as the region's cash crop. The boom drew new families, revived abandoned fields, spurred railroad construction, and gave rise to rice mills and irrigation companies that still shape the county today.
Why it matters
This marker captures the moment a single experiment transformed a regional economy, a vivid example of how agricultural innovation and irrigation remade the American landscape at the turn of the twentieth century.
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Related people
- · William Dunovant
Themes & tags
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