The San Bernard River is a river in

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

Course

San Bernard River flows from a spring near

New Ulm, Texas New Ulm is an unincorporated community in Austin County, Texas, United States. According to the Handbook of Texas, the community had an estimated population of 650 in 2000. Geography New Ulm is situated at the junction of Farm Roads 109 and 1094 ...

Texas Highways ''Texas Highways'' is a monthly magazine put out by the Texas Department of Transportation The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT ) is a government agency in the American state of Texas. Though the public face of the agency is generall ...

http://texashighways.com/travel/item/716-now-open-san-bernard-river to its mouth on the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an oceanic basin, ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of ...

, some to the southeast of the source. It passes through portions of

Austin Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...

, Brazoria,

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

, Fort Bend, Matagorda and Wharton counties. It passes alongside the

Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge is a federally protected refugium encompassing one of the largest remnants of coastal prairie habitat remaining in southeast Texas, United States, and home to one of the last populations of criti ...

, which shelters one of the last populations of the critically endangered

Attwater's prairie-chicken Attwater's prairie chicken (''Tympanuchus cupido attwateri'') is a highly endangered subspecies of the greater prairie chicken that is native to coastal Texas and formerly Louisiana in the United States. Description Attwater's prairie chicken m ...

, a ground-dwelling grouse of the coastal prairie

ecosystem An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the syste ...

. The San Bernard River is one of a small number of rivers in

which empties directly into the Gulf. Its mouth was impeded in 2005 causing it to drain into the

Gulf Intracoastal Waterway The Gulf Intracoastal Waterway is the portion of the Intracoastal Waterway located along the Gulf Coast of the United States. It is a navigable inland waterway running approximately from Carrabelle, Florida, to Brownsville, Texas. The waterw ...

, but was later corrected. Shortly after being opened back up, the entrance silted in again, and remains so at this time.

Watershed

The San Bernard drains approximately 1,850 square miles (4800 km²) of land,http://www.h-gac.com/HGAC/Programs/Clean+Rivers+Program/Basin+Profiles/Brazos_Colorado_Coastal_Basin+.htm and its basin area is home to approximately 87,000 people according to the 1990

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses incl ...

. The region was once the home of the

Karankawa The Karankawa were an Indigenous people concentrated in southern Texas along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, largely in the lower Colorado River and Brazos River valleys."Karankawa." In ''Cassell's Peoples, Nations and Cultures,'' edited by John ...

Indians. The river runs near

West Columbia, Texas West Columbia is a city in Brazoria County in the U.S. state of Texas. The city is centered on the intersection of Texas Highways 35 & 36, southwest of downtown Houston. The population was 3,644 at the 2020 census. The 1st Congress of the Repub ...

and along one side of Camp Karankawa, a camping facility of the

Boy Scouts of America The Boy Scouts of America (BSA, colloquially the Boy Scouts) is one of the largest scouting organizations and one of the largest youth organizations in the United States, with about 1.2 million youth participants. The BSA was founded i ...

. The basin receives approximately of rainfall annually.

References

External links

Official Website of F.O.R. San Bernard
* {{authority control Rivers of Texas Drainage basins of the Gulf of Mexico Rivers of Brazoria County, Texas

Course

Watershed

See also

References

External links