Established by Congress in October of 1974, Big Thicket National Preserve protects more than 113,000 acres of land and water spread over seven counties in southeast Texas. Big Thicket is known as “the biological crossroads of North America”—a meeting place for southeastern swamps, eastern deciduous forests, central plains, pine savannas, and dry sandhills. This crossroads of beautiful landscapes is home to approximately 1,320 species of trees, shrubs, vines, and grasses, and at least 300 bird species. Hiking trails and waterways meander through nine different ecosystems. The dense wilderness was, at one time, a barrier to Europeans, and was first settled by the Alabama and Coushatta tribes in the 1780s. With their shared history, the two tribes merged, forming the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas. Today, visitors can trek approximately 40 miles of trails that wind through these ecosystems brimming with life on land and in water.
