Native Americans inhabited the Armand Bayou area going back as far as 8,000 years.

These include trash heaps, as well as better distinguished artifacts, such as arrowpoints and flints.

[2] The 59-square-mile Armand Bayou Watershed includes 89 miles of natural streams, which drain several settlements in southeast Harris County, including Deer Park, La Porte, Pasadena, and Taylor Lake Village.

The bayou and the nature center were named for Armand Yramategui, former curator of the Burke Baker Planetarium and environmental leader during the 1960s.

[2] State Representative Dennis Paul, before he took office, was among those who worked with community leaders to clean up the bayou before the United States Environmental Protection Agency ordered a national solution to what Paul otherwise viewed as "a local problem.