By Brandt Mannchen

Boy did I overestimate my ETA!  I was driving to the Geraldine Watson Rare Native Plant Preserve, just south of Warren, Texas, from Humble.  I thought it would take 2.5 hours.  But that, in my hazy memory, was the time it took when I lived in Houston.  I was way early and as soon as I realized this, I switched to Plan B.

I stopped at Hickory Creek Savannah Unit of Big Thicket National Preserve (BTNP), about 4 miles form my destination, got out and walked the 1-mile trail through a pitcher plant and fern bog and Longleaf Pine uplands.  It had been very dry, the landscape screamed for water, but to no avail.

I was still early, but I went ahead after I finished my walk, and drove to the Watson Preserve.  There Jim and Kathleen, two very fine volunteers who, although they are loath to admit it, run the place on a -day-by-day basis met me.

The Watson Preserve was bought, nurtured, and protected by Geraldine Watson, one of a handful of key people who kept the second fight for a Big Thicket National Preserve running until victory was achieved in 1974 when President Gerald Ford signed legislation creating the first national preserve in the U.S. and in the National Park System.

However, over the years, Geraldine got itchy about the way BTNP was managed (she felt more controlled fire was needed) and longed for her own expression of the Big Thicket.  This longing included the wildflowers and other plants she remembered her Mother and Daddy pointing out when she was child and walked through virgin Longleaf Pine forests in Tyler County.  She knew these plants were disappearing across the Big Thicket landscape and she “acquired” them, brought them to her 11 acres on Lake Hyatt, and planted them in the right places where they grow on the natural Big Thicket landscape today. 

Now in 11 acres, instead on over 100,000 acres, a person can walk, see, and learn about most Big Thicket plant communities and many rare or disappearing wildflowers in an hour.  The BTNP acknowledges the Watson Preserve when it refers people to it, who are in a hurry, and want to experience the Big Thicket in an hour or so.

We gathered and got going.  Our first stop near the uplands, was to view Southern Crane-fly Orchids that Kathleen had found recently.  A group of about six of them lay hidden in the deep shade of a small American Beech tree.  Kathleen expressed concern about people trampling or damaging these orchids by accident, so I took each person who wanted to see then, one-by-one, and carefully showed them Nature’s splendor.  What a great way to begin a nature hike.  Thank you, Kathleen!

As we walked down the slope, toward Lake Hyatt, we learned about sandy soils, aquacludes, and seepage areas which are expressions of rainwaters percolating down and flowing along a hard, clay layer, underground, until they reached the surface of the ground at the bottom of the slope.

At the slope bottom we began to see the famous “baygalls”, as the Sweetbay Magnolia and Gallbarry Holly (the “bay” and gall” of a “baygall”) came into view. 

But that was not all.  The beautiful and rare Chapman’s Orchid began to pop into sight!  There were scores of Chapman’s Orchids scattered along the boardwalk.

In addition, we saw Liatris, Meadow Beauty, Yellow-eyed Grass, Ten-angle Pipewort, Swamp Milkweed (a beautiful red color), carnivorous Pale Pitcher Plants (with unique upside-down flowers), Rough Rose-Mallow, Bush Mint, and Barbara’s Buttons.  Truly a palate of colors, shapes, and sizes to delight everyone.

We paused for a few minutes, in the shade (it was probably 98 degrees), and admired Geraldine’s house, which like Geraldine, was a free-spirited concrete block habitation with a great window view of Lake Hyatt and its blooming White Water-Lilies.  Geraldine was also a painter of note, and Jim, at the beginning of our walk, had showed us her work (Some of it done on sheetrock!).

We then moved farther down the trail toward an open Longleaf Pine forest and crossed a small, tannin-stained creek before we moved along a boardwalk on the Longleaf Pine Wetland Savannah.  Yellow Savannah Milkwort, Maryland Milkwort, Colic-root, and bloomed-out Joe Pye-weed greeted us.  The normally wet or moist ground was bone-dry from the heat wave we had been having for the past week.  But the young Longleaf Pine trees were doing AOK as they stretched toward the sun.

Jim had perceptively, thoughtfully, and silently provided ice-cold water for us at a small shelter that fronted a clear artesian well-filled pond.  We were all glad for the wet relief.  Kathleen showed us our third orchid of the day, the green Water-Spider Orchid.  What a thrill!

We rested a while and then began the walk back to our cars.  The hike was over, but several of us broke bread together at a nearby BBQ restaurant (Jim had joked that it was the only restaurant in Warren, and he was not kidding!).  I had fried catfish and hushpuppies and the others had great BBQ and sandwiches. 

The day was over.  We all had long, hot, drives back home.  But for a few hours we had been lost in the Big Thicket and its beauty, all in 11 acres!  Truly a miracle, awe inspiring, and fun.

The Watson Preserve ranks very high in my Big Thicket pantheon of places to visit.  But it ranks number one in the joy and happiness I feel for a special person and the gift she left us all.  Thank you Geraldine, and thank your stewards, Jim and Kathleen, for keeping the dream alive.

Photos courtesy of Linda Mundwiller.