Crosby

North of Baytown up FM 2100, across the county line in spirit if not on the map. Crosby is its own thing: a school district, a fair, a rodeo, and a main street that faces the railroad because that's how it started.

What it is. An unincorporated Harris County community with a strong sense of being a town anyway. Crosby ISD is the identity — the Cougars, the Friday night games, the graduation everyone goes to. The Crosby Fair and Rodeo in June is the biggest thing that happens here all year and one of the bigger ones in the county: a week of rodeo, a carnival, a barbecue cook-off, livestock, and the parade down FM 2100. The date and the schedule are on the annual events page as they're announced.

Eating. Barbecue is the argument here, and there are two or three places that will each tell you the others are fine. A taquería or two on the main road, a diner that does breakfast the old way, and a Mexican place that does a Sunday. We list what we've verified; Crosby is where our coverage is thinnest and the ring-towns pass is filling it in. Tell us what we've missed.

The water. Lake Houston is the draw — the boat ramps and the fishing on the east shore are closer to Crosby than to anywhere else on this site, and the lake is where Crosby goes on a Saturday. The San Jacinto runs down the west side toward Highlands. After a big rain, both are off limits for a week; the lake's release gates are the reason the river rises after the rain has stopped.

Living here. Acreage, older houses, new subdivisions along 2100, and a commute: Baytown's plants in twenty-five minutes, Houston in fifty on a good day, the Grand Parkway making both easier than they were. Crosby ISD or Huffman ISD depending on the line. Flood history along the river is real — Harvey put the river neighborhoods under — and the FEMA map is on the hurricane page; read it before you buy.

The RV park. Crosby RV Park on US-90 is one of the five the turnaround crews use — $595 to $645 a month with everything, or $450 and pay your own electric. The far end of the crew radius, and the quiet one; laundry on site.

Crosby and Baytown. They share a plant workforce, a highway, and not much else. Crosby people go to Baytown for the hospital, the mall that's becoming something, and Pirates Bay; Baytown people go to Crosby for the rodeo and the lake. That's the whole relationship, and it works.

En español. Crosby está al norte de Baytown por la FM 2100: su propio distrito escolar (los Cougars), la feria y rodeo de junio (lo más grande del año, con parrillada y desfile), barbacoa, el lago Houston para pescar y pasear en lancha. Después de una lluvia fuerte, el río y el lago quedan cerrados una semana. Nuestra cobertura aquí es la más delgada y estamos trabajando en ello.