El Lago is a city in Harris County,

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

, United States. The population was 3,090 at the 2020 census. El Lago has particular historical significance, as it sits on the site of one of the main hide-outs for the

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

pirate Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and valuable goods, or taking hostages. Those who conduct acts of piracy are call ...

and

privateer A privateer is a private person or vessel which engages in commerce raiding under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign o ...

Jean Lafitte Jean Lafitte ( – ) was a French pirate, privateer, and slave trader who operated in the Gulf of Mexico in the early 19th century. He and his older brother Pierre spelled their last name Laffite, but English language documents of the time u ...

History

The city of El Lago was established in 1961 and over the years has been home to at least 47 astronauts, including

Neil Armstrong Neil Alden Armstrong (August 5, 1930 – August 25, 2012) was an American astronaut and aerospace engineering, aeronautical engineer who, in 1969, became the Apollo 11#Lunar surface operations, first person to walk on the Moon. He was al ...

, the first person to walk on the Moon;

Buzz Aldrin Buzz Aldrin ( ; born Edwin Eugene Aldrin Jr.; January 20, 1930) is an American former astronaut, engineer and fighter pilot. He made three extravehicular activity, spacewalks as pilot of the 1966 Gemini 12 mission, and was the Lunar Module Eag ...

, the lunar module pilot on the 1969

Apollo 11 Apollo 11 was a spaceflight conducted from July 16 to 24, 1969, by the United States and launched by NASA. It marked the first time that humans Moon landing, landed on the Moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and Lunar Module pilot Buzz Aldrin l ...

mission and the second person to walk on the Moon;

Jim Lovell James Arthur Lovell Jr. ( ; born March 25, 1928) is an American retired astronaut, naval aviator, test pilot and mechanical engineer. In 1968, as command module pilot of Apollo 8, he became, with Frank Borman and William Anders, one of the fi ...

, the command module pilot of

Apollo 8 Apollo 8 (December 21–27, 1968) was the first crewed spacecraft to leave Sphere of influence (astrodynamics), Earth's gravitational sphere of influence, and the first human spaceflight to reach the Moon. The crew orbited the Moon ten times ...

(making him one of the first three humans to fly to the Moon) and commander of the

Apollo 13 Apollo 13 (April 1117, 1970) was the seventh crewed mission in the Apollo program, Apollo space program and would have been the third Moon landing. The craft was launched from Kennedy Space Center on April 11, 1970, but the landing was abort ...

mission;

Story Musgrave Franklin Story Musgrave (born August 19, 1935) is an American physician and a retired NASA astronaut. He is a public speaker and consultant to both Disney's Imagineering group and Applied Minds in California. In 1996, he became only the second a ...

, veteran of six

Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable launch system, reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. ...

flights on five different orbiters; and

Peggy Whitson Peggy Annette Whitson (born February 9, 1960) is an American biochemistry researcher, and astronaut working for Axiom Space. She retired from NASA in 2018, after serving as Chief Astronaut. Over all her missions, Whitson accumulated a total of ...

, who in 2017 became the first female astronaut to command the International Space Station. Many houses in the neighborhood were custom built specifically for the astronauts and their families. The local elementary school is named for Ed White, who was the first American to walk in space, and there are two parks named for astronauts. There's the Neil Armstrong Park and McNair Memorial Park, named for astronaut

Ronald McNair Ronald Erwin McNair (October 21, 1950 – January 28, 1986) was an American NASA astronaut and physicist. He died at the age of 35 during the launch of the Space Shuttle ''Challenger'' on mission STS-51-L, in which he was serving as one of th ...

, who was killed when the Space Shuttle ''Challenger'' exploded. There is a pavilion named for Dr. Ellen Ochoa, a former astronaut and director of

Johnson Space Center The Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (JSC) is NASA's center for human spaceflight in Houston, Texas (originally named the Manned Spacecraft Center), where human spaceflight training, research, and flight controller, flight control are conducted. ...

. In addition, the city's logo features a Space Shuttle.

Geography

El Lago is located at (29.572147, –95.043680). According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

, the city has a total area of , of which is land and , or 8.45%, is water.

Demographics

As of the 2020 United States census, there were 3,090 people, 1,042 households, and 768 families residing in the city. As of the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of 2000, there were 3,075 people, 1,303 households, and 870 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 1,409 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 94.50%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 0.78%

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 0.46%

Native American Native Americans or Native American usually refers to Native Americans in the United States. Related terms and peoples include: Ethnic groups * Indigenous peoples of the Americas, the pre-Columbian peoples of North, South, and Central America ...

, 1.40% Asian, 0.07%

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...

, 1.37% from other races, and 1.43% from two or more races.

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino of any race were 5.04% of the population. There were 1,303 households, out of which 27.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 58.1% were

married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

living together, 6.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 33.2% were non-families. 27.2% of all households were made up of individuals, and 5.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.35 and the average family size was 2.89. In the city, the population was spread out, with 22.1% under the age of 18, 6.0% from 18 to 24, 30.3% from 25 to 44, 29.0% from 45 to 64, and 12.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 41 years. For every 100 females, there were 108.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 106.4 males. The median income for a household in the city was $66,223, and the median income for a family was $90,446. Males had a median income of $66,000 versus $40,302 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

for the city was $33,454. About 2.2% of families and 3.0% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, including 3.0% of those under age 18 and 1.8% of those age 65 or over.

Government and infrastructure

The City of El Lago is a Type A general Municipality. Operating under a strong Mayoral form of government. The City council is composed of 5 Council Persons and a non-voting Mayor. The Mayors may vote to break a tie. Each position serves for a two-year term. The Lakeview Police Department serves El Lago and

Taylor Lake Village Taylor Lake Village is a city in Harris County, Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas t ...

. In 1986 the two cities decided to merge their police departments. The merger was finished in January 1987. The administration is in El Lago. The Seabrook Volunteer Fire Department provides fire services.

Harris Health System The Harris Health System, previously the Harris County Hospital District (HCHD), is a governmental entity with taxing authority that owns and operates three hospitals and numerous clinics throughout Harris County, Texas, United States, includ ...

(formerly Harris County Hospital District) designated Strawberry Health Center in

Pasadena Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial d ...

for ZIP code 77586. The nearest public hospital is

Ben Taub General Hospital Ben Taub Hospital is a public hospital located in Houston, Texas within the Texas Medical Center. Having opened in May 1963, the hospital is owned and operated by the Harris Health System and is staffed by the faculty, residents, and students fr ...

in the

Texas Medical Center The Texas Medical Center (TMC) is a List of neighborhoods in Houston, neighborhood in south-central Houston, Texas, United States. It is immediately south of the Houston Museum District, Museum District and west of Texas State Highway 288. Over 6 ...

Education

Pupils in El Lago attend schools in

Clear Creek Independent School District Clear Creek Independent School District (CCISD) is a school district based in League City, Texas, United States. The district serves most of the Clear Lake Area and some other neighboring parts of the Houston metropolitan area. CCISD is the 29 ...

. The community is within the Board of Trustees District 1, The City of El Lago has two elementary school within the city boundaries; Ed White Elementary School. Other zoned schools include Seabrook Intermediate School ( Seabrook), and

Clear Falls High School Clear Falls High School is a public high school located in League City, Texas and is part of the Clear Creek Independent School District. The school, which serves grades 9 through 12, had its first graduating class in 2013. The school opened ...

(

League City League City is a city in the U.S. state of Texas, in Galveston County, within the metropolitan area. The population was 114,392 at the 2020 census. The city of League City has a small portion north of Clear Creek within Harris County zoned f ...

). Residents were previously zoned to Clear Lake High School in

Clear Lake City Clear Lake City is a master-planned community located in southeast Harris County, Texas, within the Galveston Bay Area, Bay Area of Greater Houston. It is the second-largest master-planned community in Houston – behind Kingwood, Houston ...

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

. Bay Area Charter Elementary School is a state

charter school A charter school is a school that receives government funding but operates independently of the established state school system in which it is located. It is independent in the sense that it operates according to the basic principle of autono ...

located in El Lago. The portion of Clear Creek ISD in Harris County (and therefore El Lago) is assigned to

San Jacinto College San Jacinto College () is a public community college in the Greater Houston area, with its campuses in Pasadena and Houston, Texas. Established in 1961, San Jacinto College originally consisted of the independent school districts (ISD) of Chan ...

Parks

Harris County Precinct 2 operates the Bay Area Community Center at 5002 NASA Road 1 in nearby Pasadena.Bay Area Community Center
." ''

Harris County, Texas Harris County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 4,731,145, and was estimated to be 5,009,302 in 2024, making it the List of counties in Texas, most populous cou ...

''. Retrieved on December 6, 2008.

Notes

References

External links

City of El Lago official website
* {{authority control Cities in Texas Cities in Harris County, Texas Greater Houston Galveston Bay Area Populated coastal places in Texas