Highlands and the river

Across the San Jacinto to the northwest, older, quieter, and closer to the ferry and the battleground than to anything on Garth. Most Baytown people know it as the exit before the bridge. It's better than that.

What it is. An unincorporated community on the east bank of the San Jacinto River, with a main street that hasn't changed its mind, a feed store, churches, and houses that have been in the same families since the oil came in. The river is the point — the fishing, the boat ramps, the flood history, the way the fog sits on it in January.

The river. The San Jacinto here is wide and slow, the last stretch before it becomes the ship channel. Boat ramps at the county park and the private camps; catfish and bass in the river, redfish where it meets the salt. After a big rain it runs brown and fast and everyone stays off it for a week. The floods of 2017 are still the reference point for anyone who lives near the bank.

Lynchburg. Follow the road south and you're at the ferry landing — the Highlands side is the way to the Lynchburg Ferry that isn't through Baytown. The San Jacinto Battleground is across the water: the monument, the marsh trails, the history that Texas schoolchildren memorize. A morning here and lunch back in Baytown is a fine Sunday.

Eating. A couple of cafés and a taquería on the main road; the kind of place where the daily special is on a whiteboard and the pie is real. We list what we've found; tell us what we've missed.

The Highlands stand. Someone from Highlands sells at the Market at Town Square most third Saturdays — we haven't pinned down which vendor, and we'd like to. If it's you, say so.

Moving here. Cheaper than Baytown, older houses, flood insurance is not optional near the river, and Goose Creek CISD or Huffman depending on the street. The commute to the plants is short; the commute to anything else goes over the bridge.

En español. Highlands está al otro lado del río San Jacinto, al noroeste de Baytown: un pueblo antiguo y tranquilo junto al río, con rampas para lanchas, pesca, y el camino al ferry de Lynchburg y al campo de batalla de San Jacinto. Cerca del río, el seguro contra inundaciones es obligatorio.