This new 2025 exhibit is sponsored greatly in party by the Bybee Foundation and the Summerlee Foundation.

Did you know these facts about Coastal Ranching? Coastal Ranching in Texas dates back to 1720. The first Anglo, and African American-owned, ranches in Texas were located on the Gulf Coast.

 

The Heritage Society is proud to present Coastal Cowboys, a traveling exhibition from The Bryan Museum in Galveston, Texas. It unveils the overlooked saga of Texas’s Gulf Coast cowboys and their horses in both the pre, and post-Civil War eras. This groundbreaking show sheds light on a network of Texas coastal ranches that flourished long before Texas found its place on the map, revealing how these cowboys forged a distinct way of life amid sand, salt, and sea.  Don’t miss this travelling exhibit from the Bryan Museum in Galveston that is co-curated by Jim Hodges who is a well-known cowboy, Vietnam combat vet, author/historian, and museum collections producer.

Cattle ranching has been the backbone of Texas’s economy since the early 18th century. Few realize that a parallel ranching world existed along the Gulf Coast, where geography and climate demanded inventive adaptations. Coastal ranchers modified everything from horses and saddles to gear and clothing—reinventing the cowboy kit to suit marshes, barrier islands, and hurricane-prone plains. Some of the state’s first innovations in fencing, cattle branding, and herd veterinary care emerged from these frontier enterprises.

Spanning boom-and-bust cycles in the cattle trade, Coastal Cowboys traces episodes of rapid growth—when herds thundered down Galveston’s beaches in route to New Orleans—and periods of hardship, from devastating freezes to outbreaks of “Texas fever.” Highlighted are pioneering figures such as Gerald Sullivan of Galveston Island, whose family has run cattle for a century, and the White Ranch of Chambers County, whose legacy helped shape Gulf Coast lore.

Artifacts on display include leather chaps tailored for brackish marshes, long-reach cattle prod, 19th-century veterinary instruments, and original branding irons. A registry of Brazoria County cattle brands (1879–1886) invites visitors to decode the “brands they rode for,” giving a personal glimpse into each ranch’s story. Artifacts were acquired from the White Ranch in Stowell, Texas, near Winnie; the Boyt Ranch in Chambers County, the Chambers County Museum at Wallisville, and many other ranches and coastal cowboys.

Immersive stations explore the region’s Tejano and Anglo ranching roots, the founding of the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, and the science of coastal soils and grasses that sustained herds. Interactive timelines chart environmental threats—hurricanes, tidal surges, saltwater intrusion—and the ranchers’ resilience in safeguarding their livestock, from prescribed fires to tick eradication programs.

Coastal Cowboys opens at The Heritage Society on Tuesday, July 15, 2025, and runs through December 2025. Tickets are only $5 and available online and at the door; members receive free admission. Museum hours are Tuesdays- Saturdays, from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM.  Free parking is available at 212 Dallas Street.

This exhibit is sponsored greatly in party by the Bybee Foundation and the Summerlee Foundation.