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SENATE RESOLUTION NO. 257
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WHEREAS, The Republic of Texas Museum is commemorating the |
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La Salle expedition with a wreath-laying ceremony at the Texas |
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State Cemetery in Austin on February 23, 2017; and |
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WHEREAS, In 1684, the French explorer René-Robert |
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Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle, set sail for North America with 400 |
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people and four ships, intending to establish a colony on the |
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Mississippi River; the group failed to find the Mississippi, |
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however, and landed instead at Matagorda Bay, where La Salle and |
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some 180 colonists disembarked in February 1685; by that time, |
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the Belle was the only ship that remained to them, but in late |
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1686 it too was lost when it was wrecked in a storm and sank off |
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Matagorda Peninsula; the following year, La Salle was killed, and |
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sometime around Christmas 1688, what remained of his small colony |
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was overrun by the Karankawas; and |
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WHEREAS, La Salle's failed expedition revealed French |
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interest in settling the Gulf Coast, which in turn focused |
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Spain's attention on East Texas and spurred the creation of |
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Spanish settlements there; short-lived though La Salle's colony |
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was, it provided France with a claim to Texas, and for more than a |
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century, the perception of a French threat would continue to |
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haunt Spain and influence the course of events in its territory |
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north of the Rio Grande; and |
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WHEREAS, In 1995, archaeologists located the wreck of the |
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Belle on the muddy bottom of Matagorda Bay and began excavation |
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of the site; to accomplish their task, they installed a cofferdam |
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around the ship that allowed them to work on relatively dry ground, |
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scoring a technical first in maritime archaeology; they |
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eventually recovered the remains of the ship's hull as well as |
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1.6 million artifacts that help tell the complex story of a |
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bygone era of exploration and colonization; and |
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WHEREAS, The La Salle expedition represents a pivotal |
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moment in the history of the Lone Star State, and the Belle, now |
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preserved in the Bullock Texas State History Museum in Austin, |
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has offered both invaluable lessons in archaeological methods |
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and critical insights into one of the most compelling chapters |
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from our past; now, therefore, be it |
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RESOLVED, That the Senate of the State of Texas, 85th |
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Legislature, hereby recognize February 23, 2017, as La Belle Day |
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at the State Capitol. |
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Bettencourt |
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________________________________ |
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President of the Senate |
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I hereby certify that the |
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above Resolution was adopted by |
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the Senate on February 21, 2017. |
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________________________________ |
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Secretary of the Senate |
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________________________________ |
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Member, Texas Senate |