Best-kept secret

There’s a Gonzales ‘museum’ you may have never visited, and may not have even known was supposed to exist

Secrets. They’re those titillating whispers that many love to proclaim they know and some can’t resist sharing.

In the tourism world, a best-kept secret can be a nightmare. Attractions no one talks about – or even knows exist – does not bode well for those charged with enticing tourists to a community. Publicity types love to draw attention to what they label their “best-kept secret,” but that’s usually just their way of making sure visitors seek out a little-known treasure.

For Gonzales, the birthplace of Texas independence and a community that prides itself for its dedication to history, best-kept secrets – especially when it comes to a museum established 50 years ago to spotlight a local icon – can be opportunities lost.

Why the secret?

It’s hard to find anyone in Texas who hasn’t heard of Sam Houston or Stephen F. Austin. It’s hard to find anyone in Gonzales who hasn’t heard of J.B. Wells. But it’s even harder to find anyone in Gonzales who’s ever even heard of the J.B. Wells Jr. museum, established in January 1961 as a perpetual memorial to one of the area’s pioneer families.

Think Campobello Island, Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s isolated Canadian retreat just east of Maine.

Think Camp David, the popular Maryland retreat where Presidents can find solitude and tranquility.

Think Seminole Lodge, the Fort Myers, Fla., winter retreat for Thomas Edison, and The Mangoes, Henry Ford’s getaway next door to Edison’s.

Think Hyannis Port in Massachusetts, the iconic Kennedy family compound.

But when pondering where the man who donated the land for the Gonzales park and rodeo arena that bear his name got away from it all, most would incorrectly point to the historic two-story family home on Mitchell Street.

Try about a mile south of there on a secluded knoll overlooking the Guadalupe River. It’s a hill with almost as much historic significance for Gonzales and Texas independence as the actual first cannon shot that punctuated the settlers’ defiant challenge to the Mexicans who wanted the cannon returned: Come and take it.

Referred to as Santa Anna Mound Deer Park in the last will and testament of J.B. Wells Jr., it is a vantage point from which Mexican troops surveyed the settlement that dared defy the Mexican army.

“When one considers the role of Gonzales in Texas history and the attendant persons involved in that role, then something as significant as the Santa Anna Mound starts to present itself as a very significant embellishment of the portion of the history of our state,” says former Gonzales County Historical Commission chair and rabid Gonzales historian Bob Burchard.

“History books tell us that Santa Anna came through Gonzales after the fall of the Alamo in March of 1836. Santa Anna either camped or spent the night on the mound, depending on which historian one wants to believe. He then crossed the Guadalupe River at a spot many of us in Gonzales know as Santa Anna Ford. He and his troops came into Gonzales on their way to San Jacinto,” Burchard reminds, noting that Gen. Sam Houston burned Gonzales after learning that Santa Anna was headed east, a battlefield strategy that touched off the Runaway Scrape.

In 1961 when Wells had his will notarized by Hermine Spacek, the land south of Gonzales was just that – land. His land. Where white-tailed deer frolicked.

It was also a plot of land where Wells enjoyed escaping to his camp lodge, which was the centerpiece to his 311-acre tract.

That’s why in his will, Wells not only devised 123 acres to the city for use as a park, but also made specific provisions for his lodge to be preserved “in good repair and shall be used as a museum for my various collections of guns, revolvers, pistols, fishing reels, fishing rods, hunting knives, etc., and many other items of like nature and shall be used for this purpose only. These collections and items shall be kept on display there.”

Wells must be turning over in his grave.

Wells’ last will and testament

On Aug. 5, 1961, a month before Wells’ 69th birthday, he decided to put his affairs in order, “settling my worldly affairs and directing how my estate shall pass and be disposed of after my death.”

The document addressed the usual provisions for his family and directed that his house on Mitchell Street should be deeded to the Gonzales Chapter of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, a bequest “made in memory of my mother, the late Josephine H. Wells, who was a charter member of said organization.”

It also conveyed a 123-acre tract of land “known as the Santa Anna tract located around my Santa Anna Mound Deer Park and bounded by Highway 183 and the right of way of former state Highway 29 … to the city of Gonzales for public park purposes, subject to the conditions hereinafter set out.

“Said land shall forever be used for the purpose of establishing, operating and maintaining a public park thereon, and for such purpose only and shall never be sold,” the will specified. The park is to always be known as Wells Park as a permanent memorial to his parents, J.B. Wells Sr. and Josephine Henry Wells, both pioneer citizens of Gonzales County.

Then Wells specifically addressed the restrictions and reservations related to his camp lodge, stipulations to which he expected the city to adhere in exchange for receipt of the 123 acres for Wells Park.

“My camp lodge and its fenced grounds shall be maintained in good condition, and the beautiful live oak tree on the grounds and the shrubbery and trees shall be well cared for. The building shall be maintained in good repair and shall be used as a museum for my various collections of guns, revolvers, pistols, fishing reels, fishing rods, hunting knives, etc., and many other items of like nature and shall be used for this purpose only. These collections and items shall be kept on display there,” his will specified.

“My Santa Anna Mound Deer Park shall be maintained in its natural condition of natural woodland and shall never be cleared of trees and shrubs. It shall be kept clean of dead timber and necessary replaces shall be trees and shrubs native to this section of Texas. It shall be kept as a game sanctuary for native Texas white-tail deer, of which a few shall be kept in the park,” Wells laid out in his will.

Expecting his wishes to be honored and his camp lodge to become the museum he intended, Wells also stipulated that in the event of disaster, “my camp lodge and the small tenant house on the Santa Anna Mound farm near the camp lodge shall be rebuilt …”

“It is unfortunate that Mr. Wells’ camp house is in a state of deterioration, but we don’t know what condition it was in at the time it was acquired by the city,” Burchard points out, surveying the building ruins virtually obscured by overgrown vegetation. “The guns and fishing equipment that Mr. Wells refers to in his will may have been disbursed by his family or could have been disbursed by him prior to his death.

“His will, though, does remind us of his desire for preservation of his assets and the Santa Anna Mound. I believe the city of Gonzales has a unique opportunity to take the assets devised to the city by J.B. Wells and develop the mound into a unique tourist attraction in which a portion of the story of the history of our state may be told,” Burchard says.

In addition, and because the camp lodge and Santa Anna Mound were central to his estate, Wells may have envisioned the entrance for the park created by his endowment would be near his lodge. His will provided for erecting “a suitable monument or monuments to the memory of my father and mother … near the front gate of my camp lodge of a shape similar to those erected by the state of Texas in the centennial years of 1935-36, made of gray or blue granite.” He even gave an example of what he expected, noting that “such a monument was erected in memory of Sarah Seeley in the old DeWitt Cemetery only a short distance away from my lodge.”

One can only speculate as to what Wells would think today if he could see the park he created and the museum he expected.

“There’s still some pretty good habitat up there, but I don’t think it was anything like it was,” says Hugh Shelton, who has lived immediately northwest of the Santa Anna Mound since 1973-74 and whose family has owned the property for three generations. Shelton, who is the great-great-great-grandson of George W. Davis, one of the original settlers of Gonzales and one of the Old Eighteen who confronted the Mexican dragoons demanding the return of the cannon, says the mound is still home to lots of deer and even some bobcats, but laments actions taken by the city in direct opposition to Wells’ will.

Shelton recalls that when U.S. Highway 183 was being built, highway contractors dug gravel from the mound. “That pretty much ruined it as an archeological site. Once you’ve disturbed it two or three times, it’s pretty much over with. That old hill is really fragile.”

Then came the biggest violation when the city bulldozed the mound, despite Wells’ stipulation that the land “shall never be cleared of trees and shrubs.”

“I think that was a big mistake on the city’s part to knock that brush off that hill, the way they did it anyway. When the city got it and started developing that hill up there, they went up there and bulldozed that off. I think that was a BIG mistake on the part of the city. Who authorized that, I don’t know. I was really disappointed to see that, because that wasn’t in Mr. Wells’ plan,” Shelton says.

“I think his vision of a park with walking trails was more what he had a vision of, because that was what was up there,” Shelton says of Wells’ wishes for the Santa Anna Mound. “That’s where we strayed off the original vision, right there.

“Before they bulldozed it, there was a lot of wildlife up there. There’s still a lot of deer and stuff that stay up there. There was a pair of bobcats that we’d see at our front gate pretty regularly,” Shelton says.

Tim Hogsett from the recreation grants division of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department which awarded a $500,000 grant to the city in 2001 for the J.B. Wells Park project, confirmed that some clearing on the mound occurred, but generously attributed the actions to a misunderstanding by those involved of what was important at the site. TPWD and the city agreed upon a mitigation planting plan, Hogsett said, and the park project was completed to TPWD’s satisfaction.

The camp lodge today

Fifty years after Wells died in 1963, J.B. Wells Park boasts an arena complex used almost exclusively for rodeos.

There’s no granite monument to the memory of Wells’ parents.

The park is jammed with recreational vehicles primarily housing workers associated with the burgeoning oilfield activity – “it’s really not a park,” Shelton laments. “If you really want the serenity of a park, [the RVs] took away that.”

And the museum expected to house Wells’ various collections is barely a building. To call it dilapidated would be charitable. Very little of the roof remains, the walls are leaning, windows are missing, screens are torn, doors are either gone or dangling by a lone hinge, the floor is overgrown with vegetation and caked in mud and leaves, scrap lumber litters the premises, rooms are unrecognizable – save an abandoned toilet in what must have been the bathroom and a rusting stove and overturned refrigerator in what was probably the kitchen – and the only visitors to the building either fly, slither, hop or crawl.

The grounds of the camp lodge – which Wells’ will stipulated “shall be maintained in good condition, and the beautiful live oak tree on the grounds and the shrubbery and trees shall be well cared for” – are choked with 8- to 10-foot-tall weeds and have not seen a weed whacker or other outdoor lawn care equipment in years, if ever, save the bulldozer that violated the mound. Santa Anna Mound is burdened with thick vegetation, while the remainder of J.B. Wells Park has been regularly maintained.

Almost swallowed by the dense underbrush surrounding the camp lodge are a laundry list of items which appear to have been discarded and appear to have been used by the city or at the rodeo arena. Collecting near the camp lodge are several pieces of rusting street maintenance equipment (some bearing City of Gonzales logos), a brush hog mower, aluminum bleachers, old tires, metal cattle watering trough, animal pens, loading chute, catch chutes for livestock, hog fence panels, barrels, wooden pallets or skids, cement blocks, PVC pipe, wooden signs, metal signs and a large wooden cable spool.

To be sure, no one would consider what stands today on Santa Anna Mound to be the museum Wells envisioned, the memorial to his parents and a reminder to Gonzales of one of its most familiar citizens. Is it an afterthought for city officials? Is it simply a nuisance to those maintaining the remainder of the park? Have Wells’ wishes been ignored?

The Inquirer requested comment from Gonzales mayor Bobby Logan, city manager Allen Barnes and city attorney Jackie Williamson for the following questions:

Has the city fulfilled the requirements/provisions of the J.B. Wells will as well as what TPWD expects?

How do you feel about what has been accomplished at J.B. Wells Park?

What still needs to be accomplished at J.B. Wells Park?

Have you received any communications whatsoever from TPWD advising that the city has not fulfilled its obligations related to the grant?

What would you think J.B. Wells Sr. and J.B. Wells Jr. would say if they were to view the park today?

No response was received from any of the three for any of the questions.

Logan was a city councilman when Gonzales received a $500,000 grant from the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department in 2001, funds expected to be used for development of the park. Barnes spoke with a TPWD representative in October regarding usage of the park.

“Santa Anna Mound is a site in which history may be presented and, even more importantly, the wishes of J.B. Wells may be carried out,” Burchard observes.

“I think it would be appropriate for the city of Gonzales to work with the Gonzales County Historical Commission and the Beautification Committee of the city of Gonzales to present this segment of Texas history in an appropriate manner combined with J.B. Wells’ request that native Texas plants be located on the mound, so the Santa Anna Mound may bring for us and all Texans a presentation of our history and our native plants just as J.B. Wells requested,” he says.

“Any town in Texas may have a rodeo arena and RV hookups, but only one town in Texas has the Santa Anna Mound.”