Once Davy Crockett laid eyes on Texas, he was sold. That's what he indicated to his daughter and son-in-law in a letter penned just two months before he died defending the Alamo.
The letter now belongs to the Texas Historical Commission. The state bought the letter for $490,000 from Ray Simpson, a family-owned fine arts auctioneer in Houston.
The document likely could have sold for a much higher price in an open auction, but Simpson wanted to offer it to Texas first.
Simpson found the letter during a recent move. He alerted the Texas Historical Commission and began the sales process.
The neatly scripted letter was dated Jan. 9, 1836, and was written from San Augustine, about 150 miles north of modern-day Houston.
In it, the frontiersman-turned-congressman from Tennessee wrote that Texas is the "garden spot of the world." He said it was "the best land and the best prospect for health."
"Not only Texas, but the world gains insight through this document into some of Davy Crockett's more personal hopes. His dreams and his impressions of this great state," Historical Commission chairman John Nau said.
The letter will be part of the collection at the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum.
