From 1822 to 1861, Oyster Creek served as both a homesite and a highway in early Texas, where homes and towns were commonly built along streams that supplied water for people and livestock and allowed travel by boats said to be capable of floating on a heavy dew. Its boat landings were piled high with sugar, cotton, cane, and other products from some of America's richest plantations. Chocolate Bayou was an area of early cattle raising. Together, these were two of fifty streams and ten bays that made this coast a network of useful waterways.