Lake Charlotte

March 12, 2005

 

Above a few of our group looked at a map of the area. The current was heavy in the Trinity River and also at the beginning of the lake pass we were planning to take to Lake Charlotte

Christine, to the left, helped us again this year with the planning of the trip.

  
Lake Charlotte is one of the best paddling areas in SET for birds and wildlife watchers. To the right you can see an eagle's nest we found in the area.

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.Here's a few folks taking a break as we travelled through the area. Because of the high water and current, we started in Lake Charlotte and then worked our way around through Mud and Miller Lakes.

  
There is a great deal of history that can be found around the Trinity River. The group explored the shores of Lake Miller and found the memorial to James Miller (on the ground to the right).). James Miller, one of the earliest settlers in what is now Chambers County, was born about 1792 in Tennessee and lived in Missouri, Arkansas, and Louisiana before settling in Texas. He was married about 1814, possibly in Missouri, to Ruth Shannon, daughter of Margaret (Montgomery) and Owen Shannon.qv By 1826 the couple had six children. Miller, a blacksmith by trade, joined the Louisiana militia in 1815 during the War of 1812.  
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 Miller served as a corporal in Capt. Moses Odam's Company of the Tenth and Twentieth Consolidated Regiment. The Millers and the Shannons moved to Texas in 1821. Miller settled north of the site of present Wallisville in Chambers County near Lake Miller, which was named for him. As a resident of the Atascosita District, Miller was one of sixty male voters who participated in an 1826 election asking that the district and its inhabitants be attached to Austin's colony. He is also listed as a member of an Atascosito militia unit that marched to Nacogdoches in 1827 to quell the Fredonian Rebellion.qv Miller applied for a formal title to his land in April 1830, but died shortly afterward.  
Felix takes a bread along the shore after a long paddle on a windy Lake Charlotte and a trip through Mud Lake to Lake Miller.  
Tad sits out of the wind, before our trip back to the park on Lake Charlotte. We returned with the wind, but the white caps on Lake Charlotte still made it a rough trip across the lake.