The Epic Battle for the Trinity
Alan Steelman
June 25, 2023
Epic the dream
Epic the battle
This special river, Las Santisima Trinidad
The Holy Trinity
Rivers of the Lone Star
Exploring and evangelizing
The early Spaniards
Navigating and naming
The Brazos, Colorado, Neches, Nueces,
San Jacinto, Pecos, Sabine, Guadalupe,
San Antonio, and the Rio Grande
Headwaters north for some, some wending east, others west
They christened one
Flowing from the north, almost from the border
Meandering through oxbows and bends, seven hundred miles
All the way to the Gulf
Those who followed,
Early pioneers, city fathers
Men of drive, ambition and vision
Adopt a mission
The Trinity River is ours now
“We’ll make this one the best”
Make it a canal
For four score and seven
Dreams of ports, steamboats, barges
Keep the dirt flying, grow, grow, be large
From Dallas, streaming through virgin forest, verdant pastures
Trails, woodlands, The Big Thicket
Replete with songbirds, hawks, thrushes
Elms, oaks, pecans, Texas Buckeyes
All this, secondary to the port city dream
Then decades pass, region evolves
Technology, banking, finance
Airplanes and Interstates
Earth Day, new forces at play
Concern about all things green
The “fathers,” for generations ruling from the top
Face now an existential threat
A coalition not seen before or since
Gives voice to the question and the choice
Industry with mills, refineries, pollution?
Or a different solution
This Trinity, and its flow
Christened as special so long ago
Not to be disturbed with concrete, dams and levees
Our voice shall prevail, the people spoke
A resounding no, a death blow
To this old dream, now obsolete, outdated
May this special stream flow ever free to the Gulf
See the related article on The Dallas Seaport vote 50 years later.
Alan Steelman is a best-selling author, a poet, a former member of the U.S. Congress, and a former Member of the White House Staff. He has been a Chairman of the Dallas Council on World Affairs, is a graduate of Baylor University, holds a Master’s Degree from SMU, and was a resident fellow at the Institute of Politics at Harvard University.
