Vince's Bayou

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Vince's Bayou also known locally as Vince Bayou rises in southeast Harris County, Texas and runs northwest, through Pasadena and the City of South Houston, for a total of 19 channel miles (which include the reach of one minor tributary) ^[1] to its mouth on the Houston Ship Channel (the lower reaches of Buffalo Bayou). Vince's Bayou flows through soil composed of calcareous clays with some shallow to deep sandy loams. Development along its course has been extensive, but in the very few remaining undeveloped areas (none of significant size) ^[2] the terrain varies from flat to rolling prairie with local dissections. Native vegetation consists primarily of mesquite, grasses, and cacti. ^[3]

Very little wildlife habitat exists, and the estimated population within the Vince Bayou watershed is just under 89,000 persons. ^[4]

Controversy has surrounded Vince's Bayou since the Battle of San Jacinto, when observers and participants gave conflicting accounts of the location and destruction of a bridge critical to outcome of the Texas Revolution. Recent investigation supports the statements of earlier writers who believed the bridge was located on Sims Bayou, on the survey of Allen Vince, and not on Vince's Bayou, on the property of William Vince. Allen Vince built and owned the structure, and no record shows that he ever owned land in the William Vince site; contemporary references to the "Vince Bridge" or to the bridge "on the bayou of that name" reflect the confusion caused by the adjoining lands of the two brothers and the close proximity of the two streams. ^[5]

During Tropical Storm Allison, in June of the 2001 Atlantic hurricane season, the watershed received in excess of 13 inches of rain in a 24-hour period, resulting in bayou channel overbanking that flooded 1,500 homes in a 4.1 sq. mi. area. ^[6]