Sarahville de Viesca or Fort Milam or Bucksnort is a

ghost town A ghost town, deserted city, extinct town, or abandoned city is an abandoned settlement, usually one that contains substantial visible remaining buildings and infrastructure such as roads. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economi ...

Falls County, Texas Falls County is a county in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 16,968. The county seat is Marlin. It is named for the original 10-foot-tall waterfall on the Brazos River, which existed until the river changed co ...

, United States. The settlement was established in 1834 by

Sterling C. Robertson Sterling Clack Robertson (1785–1842) was an empresario from Tennessee, during Mexican Texas. He introduced 600 families into Robertson's Colony. Robertson was also an elected delegate to the Washington-on-the-Brazos convention, signing both the ...

and named for his mother Mrs. Sarah (née Maclin) Robertson and

Agustín Viesca Agustín Viesca (1790–1845) was a governor of the Mexican state of Coahuila y Tejas in 1835. He was the brother of José María Viesca, also a governor of Coahuila y Tejas during 1827-1831. Administration in Texas As Mexican President Antoni ...

, the Mexican governor of

Coahuila y Tejas Coahuila y Tejas, officially the Estado Libre y Soberano de Coahuila y Tejas (), was one of the constituent states of the newly established United Mexican States under its 1824 Constitution. It had two capitals: first Saltillo (1822–1825) f ...

. The site was located at the falls of the

Brazos River The Brazos River ( , ), called the ''Río de los Brazos de Dios'' (translated as "The River of the Arms of God") by early Spanish explorers, is the 14th-longest river in the United States at from its headwater source at the head of Blackwater ...

, where the river formerly dropped and where a well-used ford was located. The town was temporarily deserted in 1836 during the

Runaway Scrape The Runaway Scrape events took place mainly between September 1835 and April 1836 and were the evacuations by Texas residents fleeing the Mexican Army of Operations during the Texas Revolution, from the Battle of the Alamo through the decisive Ba ...

and permanently abandoned soon afterward because of native American raids. Fort Milam was built on the west-bank site but abandoned a few years later in favor of the town of Bucksnort, which occupied the east bank. Bucksnort vanished when the nearby town of

Marlin Marlins are fish from the family Istiophoridae, which includes between 9 and 11 species, depending on the taxonomic authority. Name The family's common name is thought to derive from their resemblance to a sailor's marlinspike. Taxonomy T ...

was founded. There is a county park and historical marker located where Farm to Market Road 712 crosses the Brazos, south of Marlin.

References

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sarahville de Viesca Ghost towns in Central Texas Geography of Falls County, Texas Mexican Texas Native American history of Texas