San Bernard River
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San Bernard River flows from its headwaters northwest of San Felipe, Texas to its mouth on the Gulf of Mexico, some 100 miles (160 km) to the southeast of the source. Its principal tributary is Caney Creek. Along its course, it passes through portions of Austin, Brazoria, Colorado, Fort Bend, Matagorda and Wharton counties. It passes alongside the Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge, which shelters one of the last populations of the critically endangered Attwater's prairie-chicken, a ground-dwelling grouse of the coastal prairie ecosystem.
The San Bernard drains approximately 1,850 square miles (4800 km²) of land,[1] and its basin area is home to approximately 87,000 people according to the 1990 census. The region was once the home of the Karankawa Indians. The river runs near West Columbia, Texas and along one side of Camp Karankawa, a camping facility of the Boy Scouts of America. The basin receives approximately 35 to 70 inches (900 to 1800 mm) of rainfall annually.
The San Bernard River is one of the few rivers in Texas that empties directly into the Gulf, rather than into a coastal bay system. Its mouth is south of the city of Lake Jackson, Texas, and just before it empties into the Gulf it crosses the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department shows that the mouth of the river is moving westward approximately 150 meters per year.
