Texas history runs deep in Navasota. Long before American pioneers stepped foot in Grimes County, the land was claimed for King Louis KIV of France in 1864 by Sieu Del LaSalle and Rene Robert Cavalier.

Numerous trails, including the Bahia Road, brought travelers through the area for more than three hundred years. Yet it was western migration that truly changed the region.

On March 2, 1836, the Texas Declaration of Independence was signed in a blacksmith shop just outside the county line, one of the signatures being none other than Jesse Grimes. In 1846, the State Legislature was petitioned to create the new Grimes County named for Jesse Grimes.

In 1848, pioneer James Nolan put up a tent community near the confluence of the Navasota and Brazos Rivers. He expanded the settlement with a stagecoach stop in 1852, and called it Nolanville. By the mid-1850s, four stagecoach lines had stops in the vicinity, and the name was change to Navasota.

The Houston and Texas Central Railway came to town in 1859 and Navasota became an important shipping and marketing center. By the mid-1860s, Navasota had become a true part of the Wild West, with lawless ruffians and gamblers roaming the streets. A revered Texas Ranger finally brought peace and tranquility to the vicinity in 1908.