The Curse of the Goatman
This Earthcache is located at the San Jacinto River, Baytown, Texas. Since this is an Earthcache, there is no physical container to find. To earn a smiley for the cache, e-mail or message your answers to the questions to the cache owner BEFORE you log a find.
At GZ, you will observe the waters of the San Jacinto River portions of Tabbs Bay and the extension of Trinity Bay.
Legend has it that in the 1940s and 1950s, a half-man, half-goat creature was born and roamed the San Jacinto River and Trinity Bay shores.
San Jacinto River
The San Jacinto River is one of Texas's shortest rivers, just over 37 miles long. Starting in Walker County, the San Jacinto River has an East and West fork. Both forks were dammed up during the Great Depression and formed Lake Houston in 1951. The west fork of the San Jacinto River was dammed up near Conroe in 1973, forming Lake Conroe. Both Lake Conroe and Lake Houston provide water for residents of Southeast Texas.
The elevation of the west fork of the San Jacinto River in Walker County is just over 217 feet. When the river reaches Tibbs Bay, it is a mere 2 feet above sea level. Lake Conroe and Houston’s dams were created to provide water and flood relief for Harris County.
The geology of Walker County can be considered sedimentary in origin: shale, clay, sand, sandstone, and a few thin sections of limestone and lignite. The sand, silt, clay, and gravel compose the top thirty feet of the county's topography, resulting from the Pliocene Epoch 5.3 to 2.6 million years ago.
Annual Precipitation
Located in Southeast Texas, Walker County is classified as Humid Subtropical (Cfa) according to the Koppen Climate Classification. This means that Walker County has a mild climate year-round and averages 47 inches of precipitation annually. Between 1889 and 1940, Walker County averaged 45.5 inches of precipitation, with over 70 inches in 1900.
Sediment
Sediment is earth materials, such as soil and rock, transported from hillslopes and other land surfaces into water bodies. Sediment encompasses particles ranging in size from clay to boulders. It is the natural work of rivers to move these materials across the landscape. The stream and riverbeds' physical properties and the flowing water's hydraulic forces influence the rate and mechanisms by which these materials move.
Sediment is transported as suspended load (silt and clay held in the water column above the bottom by turbulence), bedload (sand, gravel, and course materials such as boulders bounce along the streambed), and dissolved load (products of chemical weathering of rocks carried in the water). Most sediment is transported during peak flow events when it is carried as a suspended load. Usually, bedload represents a smaller percentage of the total sediment transported, ranging from 15 to 60 percent in some watersheds.
Turbidity
A dissolved load can also be characterized by an analysis of turbidity. Turbidity refers to the amount of light scattered or absorbed by a fluid. It is an optical property of the fluid, and though it can be correlated with the amount of sediment in the water, it is not a measure of the amount of sediment. Stream turbidity is usually due to silt and clay particles in suspension and certain dissolved constituents.
Tides
Tides are the alternating rise and fall of the sea surface. Tides occur mainly because of the gravitational attraction (pull) of the moon and sun on the Earth as it spins. Two high and two low tides occur daily in Baytown (see the Tide Tables for Baytown).
Tides change in height – low water and high-water level and will vary throughout the month. The tides build up to a maximum and fall to a minimum twice a month. The tides with the biggest differences between high and low water are called springs, and those with the smallest are called neaps.
**Access this Earthcache at Low Tide**
After reading the information above and observing Ground Zero, please answer these required logging tasks:
- At low tide, how far away is Tibbs Bay?
- From the reading above, how did the materials at GZ arrive here?
- Describe the texture and size of the materials at GZ. Is it rocky, sandy, or muddy? Are the materials the size of a basketball, golf ball, marble, or smaller?
- Take a picture of an object, pen, pencil, hat, etc., with Tibbs Bay and the San Jacinto River in the background.
Bonus: Do you see the tracks of the Goatman at GZ? If not, what do you observe?
Confirm your findings by answering these questions and sending
Your answers via the message center.
** Please do not post your answers in your log! **
Please give this a Favorite Point if you like this Earthcache.
Tide Tables for Baytown: https://myforecast.co/bin/tide_extended.m?city=30139&zip_code=77521&metric=true&tideLocationID=T6269%22
References
Gard, Wayne. 2020. Trinity River. Texas State Historical Association. https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/trinity-river
Jackson, Charles C. 2017. San Jacinto River. Texas State Historical Association. https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/san-jacinto-river
Wampler, Peter J. 2012. Rivers and Streams – Water and Sediment in Motion. Nature. https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/rivers-and-streams-water-and-26405398/