Mathew Caldwell

The Battle of Gonzales was the first military engagement of the Texas Revolution. It was fought near Gonzales, Texas, on October 2, 1835, between rebellious Texian settlers and a detachment of Mexican army soldiers. In 1831, Green DeWitt asked the Mexican authorities to lend the Gonzales colonists a cannon to help protect them from frequent Comanche raids. One was supplied, on the condition that the cannon would be returned to the Mexicans on request. Over the next four years, the political situation in Mexico deteriorated, and in 1835 several states revolted. As the unrest spread, Colonel Domingo de Ugartechea, the commander of all Mexican troops in Texas, felt it unwise to leave the residents of Gonzales with a weapon and requested the return of the cannon. When the initial request was refused, Ugartechea sent 100 dragoons to retrieve the cannon. The soldiers neared Gonzales on September 29, but the colonists used a variety of excuses to keep them from the town, while secretly sending messengers to request assistance from nearby communities. Within two days, up to 140 Texians gathered in Gonzales, all determined not to give up the cannon. On October 1, settlers voted to initiate a fight. Mexican soldiers opened fire as Texians approached their camp in the early hours of October 2. After several hours of desultory firing, the Mexican soldiers withdrew.Although the skirmish had little military significance, it marked a clear break between the colonists and the Mexican government and is considered to have been the start of the Texas Revolution. News of the skirmish spread throughout the United States, where it was often referred to as the "Lexington of Texas". Two cannons were used by the Texians in the fighting, the bronze six-pounder under dispute and a smaller Spanish esmeril made of iron, its caliber being a one pounder or less.The cannon's fate is disputed. It may have been buried and rediscovered in 1936, or it may have been seized by Mexican troops after the Battle of the Alamo. A bronze six-pounder was noted as one of twenty-one large guns captured and buried by the Mexicans at the Alamo, dug up in 1852 and sent to New York in 1874 to be cast into a bell that hangs in St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in San Antonio; while a smaller iron gun was abandoned in a creek and uncovered by a flood in 1936, on show in the Gonzales Memorial Museum as of 2020.

Gonzales is a city in the U.S. state of Texas, with a population of 7,165 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Gonzales County. The "Come and Take It" incident, the ride of the Immortal 32 into the Alamo, and the Runaway Scrape after the fall of the Alamo, all integral events in the War for Texas Independence from Mexico, originated in Gonzales. Its cattle and poultry economy is enhanced by oilfield services and light manufacturing enterprises, a short rail connection to a major Union-Pacific rail line, and lodging oil field workers from the nearby Eagle Ford Shale. It is the site of the Battle of Gonzales, the first battle of the Texas Revolution.

KCTI (1450 AM, 92.5 FM; Texas Public Radio) is an American terrestrial public radio station, paired with an FM translator, licensed to Gonzales, Texas, and owned by Texas Public Radio of San Antonio.From November 17, 1947 until August 31, 2015, KCTI broadcast a Texas Country format under the ownership of Gonzales Communications. KCTI returned to the air on January 2, 2017, with new ownership, featuring a public radio format of News/Talk/Entertainment. KCTI is now owned and operated by Texas Public Radio, based in San Antonio, Texas. In March 2016, the KCTI call letters were allowed to be reused by Maranatha Church of Laredo, by former KCTI owner Gonzales Communications, for fellow Gonzales licensed 88.1 KITG, as KCTI-FM. This was challenged by KCTI's new owners, Texas Public Radio, which had purchased KCTI from Gonzales Communications, resulting in a request being sent to the Federal Communications Commission by T.P.R. asking the commission to force Sun Radio to abandon the callsign they felt rightfully belonged to them, and select another one in its place. In response to Texas Public Radio, the Commission stated that it never would have allowed the use of a secondary call sign without “approval from user” of the primary callsign. In this case, it said the former 1450 KCTI General Manager's email saying he had no problem with the FM station using KCTI-FM was good enough, and had approval of the KCTI ownership at the time the deal was made. Therefore, Sun Radio was allowed to continue using the FM side of the KCTI call, even though they do not own the original AM facility, nor have the approval of the present KCTI ownership, for the two facilities to share the longtime heritage Gonzales based calls. KCTI-FM operates as a Sun Radio affiliate with local programming consisting of Gonzales Apache football & Sunday morning local church service broadcasts.

Crystal Theatre is a historic theater in Gonzales, Texas. It has hosted vaudeville performances, silent movies, and talkies, and later became a coffee house and dinner theater venue. It was reopened in 2009 with a focus on youth programs.

The Gonzales County Courthouse is located in Gonzales, capital of the county of the same name in the U.S. state of Texas. It was designated a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1966 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.It is the second building to serve as the county courthouse. The first burned on December 3, 1893. The current three-story building, designed by J. Riely Gordon in Romanesque Revival style with eclectic details, was built with red brick and a white limestone trim. The brick came from St. Louis, Missouri, while the limestone was cut from a nearby quarry owned by Firmin Maurin, who in 1895 was hired as superintendent for construction of the courthouse. The contract was let on June 26, 1894, and the courthouse was completed on April 8, 1896. The structure cost $64,450. The building was extensively repaired in 1958 including receiving a new roof, and received historic restoration in 1997.

Gonzales High School is a 4A public high school located in Gonzales, Texas (USA). It is part of the Gonzales Independent School District located in central Gonzales County. In 2011, the school was rated "Academically Unacceptable" by the Texas Education Agency.

The San Marcos River rises from the San Marcos Springs, the location of the Meadows Center for Water and the Environment (formerly Aquarena Springs), in San Marcos, Texas. The springs are home to several threatened or endangered species, including the Texas blind salamander, fountain darter, and Texas wild rice. The river is a popular recreational area, and is frequented for tubing, canoeing, swimming, and fishing.

KCTI-FM (88.1 FM) is a terrestrial American radio station, licensed to Gonzales, Texas, United States, and is owned by the Sun Radio Foundation of Bee Cave, Texas.

Lake Wood was a reservoir on the Guadalupe River 4 miles (6 km) west of the town of Gonzales in Gonzales County, Texas. The reservoir was formed in 1931 by the construction of a dam to provide hydroelectric power to the area. Management of the dam and lake was assumed by the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority on May 1, 1963. Lake Wood served as a venue for outdoor recreation, including fishing and boating. Lake Wood was also known locally as H-5 Reservoir or Guadalupe Reservoir H-5. On March 10, 2016, after substantial rainfall, one of the reservoir gates failed, essentially draining Lake Wood. The area where the lake was is now overgrown and forest like.

Gonzales County is a county in the U.S. state of Texas, adjacent to Greater Austin-San Antonio. As of the 2020 census, its population was 19,653. The county is named for its county seat, the city of Gonzales. The county was created in 1836 and organized the following year. As of August 2020, under strict budgetary limitations, the County of Gonzales government-body is unique in that it claims to have no commercial paper, regarding it as "the absence of any county debt."According to the census, all areas county-wide had $188,099,000 in total annual payroll (2016), $550,118,900 (±39,442,212; 2018) in aggregate annual income, and $238,574,000 in total annual retail sales (2012). In 2018, the census valued all real estate in the county at an aggregate $795,242,300 (±74,643,103); with an aggregate $29,058,000 of real estate being listed for sale and $173,100 listed for rent. In the same year, approximately, the top 5% of households made an average of $361,318; the top 20% averaged at $188,699; the fourth quintile at $79,601; the third quintile (median income) at $53,317; the second quintile at $31,238; and the lowest at $13,339. The Texas Almanac rated all categories of land in the county at an aggregate value of $5.6-billion.

Wonder Cave is a show cave located in the Balcones Fault in San Marcos, Texas. Its entrance is one mile southwest of the county courthouse in San Marcos. The cave is reported to be the only commercially operated dry-formed cave in the United States ("dry-formed" because the fissure was opened not by erosion but by the earthquake that produced the Balcones Fault). The fault itself is visible in the cave's ceiling. Originally named Bevers Cave after Mark Bevers, who discovered it in 1893, the cave for a while concealed Bevers' illicit distilling and gambling enterprises.The cave is also home to Wonder World amusement park, which features tours of the multichambered cave and a wildlife park. .

Oak Forest was a settlement in Gonzales County, Texas, United States, five miles west of Gonzales. Oak Forest was situated along modern U.S. Highway 90 Alternate and CR 143, adjacent to the Guadalupe River and due south of the modern Palmetto State Park. Formerly the location of a mill and later re-purposed as a power dam, it failed in 1935 during a flood and was later rebuilt. There is still an operating hydroelectric dam and a small reservoir called MA Wade Dam near the site. According to the Handbook of Texas, the community had an estimated population 25 in 2000.