Nueces Bay - History

History

Nueces Bay formed approximately 9,000 years ago, as the sea level rose at the conclusion of the last ice age. The sea level stabilized 6,000 years later, shaping the present-day Nueces Bay. The first human inhabitants were the nomadic Aransas Indians, who settled between the Copano and Baffin bays about 8,000 years ago, until 1300 CE. In the next century, the Karankawa Indians arrived, and were present when Europeans came ashore.

Nueces is Spanish for "nuts", and refers to the pecan trees that grew along the banks of the Nueces River, noted by Spanish explorer Alonso De León in 1689. It is unclear when the name was given to the bay; it was called San Miguel Arcángel by Spanish captain Joaquín de Orobio y Basterra in 1747, and an 1835 map of Texas identified it as Papelote or "wastepaper" Bay. It appears to have been first noted on a Spanish map in 1527 as the mouth of the Río Escondido or hidden river, which is believed to be the Nueces. French explorer René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle sailed into the bay in 1685, mistakenly believing it was the Mississippi River. Spanish colonial governor José de Escandón planned a villa on the mouth of the Nueces River named Villa de Vedoya. Fifty families were sent the site in 1749, but failed to establish a settlement, due to a lack of sufficient supplies. Later that century, missionaries discussed the possibility of moving Nuestra Señora del Refugio Mission to the site, but decided against the idea due to conflict with the Lipan Apaches. Germans attempted to settle the same area, but were turned away by the French during the Pastry War in the 1830s. The next decade, a colony for freed slaves was proposed by abolitionist Benjamin Lundy, who had to cancel after the outbreak of the Texas Revolution.

Corpus Christi, which was founded as a trading post on the southeastern shore in 1839, is believed to be the first permanent settlement on the bay. It soon grew into a major Texas port with a population of 277,454 at the time of the 2000 census. In 1852, a settlement was finally established at the confluence of the Nueces River and Nueces Bay by Henry Kinney, who also founded Corpus Christi. The community was referred to as The Motts by German and English settlers for nearby tree clusters, but was officially known as Nuecestown. It was raided by Mexican bandits in 1875, but recovered and grew to a population of 200 by 1896. After the railroad passed on the town in 1905, it declined, and is today included in the city limits of Corpus Christi. To the north of the bay, the Coleman-Fulton Pasture Company controlled a large segment of San Patricio County for ranching during the aftermath of the Texas Revolution. David Sinton and later Charles Phelps Taft, whose names are immortalized by the nearby towns of Sinton and Taft, were involved with the company. They sold a plot of land on the northeast of Nueces Bay to George H. Paul, who hired Mexican immigrants to clear the land of mesquite trees and founded a ranching community later named West Portland. The plots of land in this community are still mostly held by the descendants of the original owners. The town of Portland—on the extreme northeast of the bay—was also established from land purchased from the Coleman-Fulton Pasture Company by future State Senator John G. Willacy with help from a New England company. The town steadily grew and reached a population of 14,827 by 2000. To the northwest of the bay, on the Whites Point peninsula, a settlement was established around 1866 by cattledriver Darius Rachal, who had purchased land on the point from the cattle-driving White family. Soon after his purchase, many of the Whites died of yellow fever as an epidemic swept the area and killed 14 people. Rachal used his land to raise cattle, grow cotton and sell real estate to new settlers. A post office was established at the site in 1892, and was given the name Rosita or "little flower" after the names "White Point" and "Rachal" were rejected by United States Postal Service. After a 1915 gas explosion and two massive hurricanes, including a 1919 storm that killed 26 residents (approximately 50 were killed in Portland and 47 in Corpus Christi), the post office was abolished in 1919 and by the next year most residents had relocated to Odem.