La Grange: Monument Hill State Historic Site

While this beautiful 36-acre complex offers ample opportunity to enjoy nature, the elegant monuments on the hill – and the tomb they shroud – it recalls a more somber and uncertain era. Some of these dead were casualties of the infamous Mier Expedition – the most disastrous of the Texan raiding expeditions into Mexico.

In March 1843, with an order to kill every tenth Texan prisoner, Mexican colonel Domingo Huerta chose victims by a strange lottery. In what is now known as the “Black Bean Episode,” 176 Texans were ordered to pick beans from a pot; the seventeen who drew black beans were blindfolded – and executed by firing squad. Some of the survivors ultimately escaped, were released, or died in Mexican prison.

Monument Hill State Historic Site

• Hours: Grounds open daily, 8 a.m. – 5 p.m., Visitor Center: Tuesday - Saturday, 9:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m., Sunday, 1 - 4:30 p.m.
• Admission: Adults: $4, Children/Students/Seniors: $3
• 414 State Loop 92, La Grange, TX
• 979-968-5658
• Visit Website
• National Register of Historic Places
• A Texas Historical Commission Property