REVIVING THE ALAMO

San Antonio's Alamo reclaims cannon that spent years as a birdbath

A 90-pound cannon used in the Battle of the Alamo is returning to its San Antonio home.

Photo by Gower Brown/ Unsplash

It turns out the Alamo's original 1836 cannons are good for more than just defense — they also make a sturdy birdbath. After serving as a garden ornament for Samuel Maverick’s descendants, an authentic piece of San Antonio history is finally returning home to the revered mission.

According to an Alamo announcement, the swivel cannon weighs 90 pounds and is approximately three feet long. The relic was originally found in 1852 when Maverick built a home near the northwest corner of the battle’s site.

The lawyer and land baron was saved from death when he was urged by William Barret Travis to ride to the Texas Declaration of Independence convention in Washington-on-the-Brazos to send reinforcements. Returning to the Alamo’s grounds, he found a cache of cannons buried where the Hotel Gibbs sits today.

From there, the cannon wound up at the Maverick family’s Sunshine Ranch on the Northwest Side, where it was eventually incorporated into the garden DIY project. In 1955, the cannon was removed from the ranch, and the current location remained a mystery until the Alamo received a call from a Maverick relative in Corpus Christi.

Alamo cannon This Alamo artifact gives an idea of what the cannon will look like once restoration is complete.Photo courtesy of the Alamo.

“The relative graciously donated the cannon to the Alamo,” wrote a rep from the mission. “Alamo Senior Researcher and Historian Kolby Lanham and Head Conservator Pam Jary Rosser drove down the very next day to take this piece of history home to the Alamo.”

Although the artillery is mostly intact, it is missing its trunnions (the pivot-point protrusions on the sides of the barrel) and cascabel (the knob and neck assembly at the rear of historic muzzle-loading cannons). The parts were removed by the Mexican army to make the cannon inoperable.

Once preservation is complete, this cannon and the Alamo Collection’s other battle cannons will make their way to the upcoming Visitor Center and Museum, where they will be joined by rocker Phil Collins' collection of Alamo artifacts. The Alamo is in the midst of a $550 million preservation project, which includes conserving the Alamo Church, Long Barrack, and the mission’s original footprint. The museum is on track to debut in late 2027.

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BOW WOW WOW

San Antonio fetches top spot as Texas' best dog park city

Photo by Ron Fung/ Unsplash

San Antonio is the top Texas city for dog parks.

San Antonio appears to be barking up the right tree. A new study by Austin-based lawn care platform LawnStarter ranks the Alamo City as the top-ranked place in Texas for dog parks.

To come up with the ranking, LawnStarter reviewed data from 100 U.S. cities, including the number of dog parks per 100,000 residents, dog park ratings, access to private Sniffspot dog parks, Google search activity, and climate metrics.

San Antonio ranks highest in the study’s Google search (score of 61 out of 100) and climate (score of 40) categories, but lowest in the access (score of 20) and quality (score of 21) categories. The city’s overall score is 42.34.

According to the nonprofit Trust for Public Land, San Antonio has 20 off-leash dog parks, or 1.4 dog parks per 100,000 residents.

“Dog parks provide an opportunity to socialize for dogs and humans. Dog parks provide us an opportunity to spend time outside with animals,” Courtney Lynd Daigle, an associate professor of animal welfare at Texas A&M University, tells LawnStarter. “Whether you have a dog or not, spending time in a dog park can be fun and rewarding.”

The LawnStarter ranking isn’t the only indicator of San Antonio’s rabid love of pooches.

In 2024, Zillow Rentals teamed up with BARK, creator of the BarkBox toy and treat subscription service, to rank the most dog-obsessed cities in the U.S. They combined Zillow’s data on pet-friendly apartments with Bark’s subscriber data to rank Dallas as the most dog-obsessed city, followed by Austin at No. 2 and San Antonio at No. 3.

Zillow Rentals says that with three of every four rental properties welcoming pets, “San Antonio stands out as an exceptionally dog-friendly city.” Dogs live in an estimated 55 percent of San Antonio households.

San Antonio ranked No. 20 in the study overall. The top dog is Boise, Idaho, followed by Portland, Oregon; San Francisco; Las Vegas; and Henderson, Nevada. Here’s how other large Texas cities fare in the study:

Austin, No. 23
Houston, No. 31
Fort Worth, No. 51
Dallas, No. 59
Plano, No. 68
Arlington, No. 78
Frisco, No. 82
Irving, No. 83
Garland, No. 100

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