| Carpenters Bayou | |
| Nickname: | Houston Ship Channel |
| Map: | Carpenters Bayou Texas.jpg |
| Map Size: | 350px |
| Pushpin Map: | Texas#USA |
| Pushpin Map Caption: | Location within State of Texas |
| Subdivision Type1: | Country |
| Subdivision Name1: | United States |
| Subdivision Type2: | U.S. State |
| Subdivision Name2: | Texas |
| Subdivision Type3: | County |
| Subdivision Type4: | Cities |
| Subdivision Name4: | Channelview, Houston |
| Length: | 44miles |
| Width Min: | 125feet |
| Width Avg: | 165feet |
| Width Max: | 430feet |
| Depth Min: | 2feet |
| Depth Avg: | 11feet |
| Depth Max: | 15feet |
| Source1: | Sheldon, Texas |
| Source1 Location: | Sheldon Lake |
| Mouth: | Channelview, Texas |
| Mouth Location: | Buffalo Bayou |
| River System: | San Jacinto River |
| Basin Size: | 25sqmi |
| Basin Population: | 70,721 (2020 Census)[1] |
| Custom Label: | GNIS feature ID |
Carpenters Bayou rises at the south end of Sheldon Reservoir in southeastern Harris County (29.85°N -105°W), Texas, USA.[2] The bayou waterway routes southeast for about twelve miles until it joins Buffalo Bayou at the San Jacinto Battleground State Historic Site (29.75°N -101°W).[3]
The bayou's name commemorates David Carpenter, a partner of William Harris as one of Stephen F. Austin's "Old Three Hundred" families of Austin's Colony in what later became Texas.[4] Carpenter and Harris received a sitio[5] of land in present Harris County, Texas on August 16, 1824, which fronted on Carpenter's Bayou in southeastern Harris County, near San Felipe de Austin.[4] Carpenter was a blacksmith, and a single man at the time of the grant. He may have died as early as 1828, the year that Noah Smithwick bought his blacksmith's outfit in San Felipe.[4]