Corpus Christi Bay - History

History

The shores of Corpus Christi (Body of Christ) Bay are thought to have been inhabited by the Karankawa Indians before the European discovery. Archeological evidence suggests that pre-Karankawa peoples used the area near Oso Bay as a burial ground between 500 BC and 500 AD. It is believed to have first been spotted by Europeans on Corpus Christi Day 1519, when Spanish explorer Alonso Álvarez de Pineda navigated its waters. Joaquín de Orobio y Basterra came across the bay in 1746, when given orders to settle the area between Tampico, Mexico, and the mouth of the San Antonio River at San Antonio Bay. He named the bay after St. Michael the Archangel, but the name did not stick and was referred to as "Corpus Christi Bay" in a 1766 report by Diego Ortiz Parrilla. Explorer Blas María de la Garza Falcón is believed to have been the first man to purchase land on the bay in 1746. Shortly thereafter the short-lived settlement of Villa de Vedoya was founded on the mouth of the Nueces River.

The first trading post on Corpus Christi Bay was established by Henry Kinney in 1838 in present day Corpus Christi. By the 1840s, the area developed into a settlement named after the bay, and a deepwater port was established in the 1870s. A bayfront that included a 32 foot overlooking statue of Jesus Christ was designed by Mount Rushmore sculptor Gutzon Borglum in 1928, but was turned down by the city in 1930. Later efforts to build a statue on the shore were also rejected. The bayside port would later grow into a major city, and had a population of 277,454 people during the 2000 U.S. census. In addition to Corpus Christi, Kinney also found Nuecestown (known to settlers as The Motts) in 1852, near the confluence of the Nueces River and Nueces Bay. The town was attacked by Mexican robbers in 1875, and underwent a steep decline. It is now a ghost town located in the Corpus Christi city limits. The city of Ingleside was founded on the northern shore of the bay in 1854, and grew slowly. It had a population of 9,388 in the 2000 census. Likewise, the city of Portland located on the northeastern bluff between the Nueces and Corpus Christi Bays, did not grow as rapidly as Corpus Christi, following its 1891 founding. During the 2000 census, it had 14,827 residents.

For transportation on the bay, steamboats were commonplace between Corpus Christi and Ingleside during the 1930s. Native Americans used a route made up of a series of shallow oyster beds, dubbed Reef Road. The passage, which was about 18 to 24 inches in depth, could be navigated on foot or horseback during low tides to travel across the opening of Nueces Bay into Corpus Christi Bay. White settlers discovered the road in the 1860s, and it became a common way to pass from Portland to Corpus Christi via buggy, although its jagged course had to be marked with posts and horses would sometimes fall off the beds and drown. A wooden causeway connecting Portland and Corpus Christi was first constructed in 1915, but was repeatedly rebuilt and destroyed by several storms. A permanent concrete bridge was erected in the 1950s, and a double lane was added in 1988. The approximately mile long structure is today known as the Nueces Bay Causeway.

The bay has been strategically important for the military. General Zachary Taylor stationed his men on Rincon Point during the Mexican-American War, and a Union invasion was halted by Confederates on the same point in 1862, during the American Civil War. The Port of Corpus Christi was used by the Confederates to bring in supplies during the war effort until the Union bombarded Corpus Christi and occupied the bay and port from 1863 to 1870. In 1940, the Naval Air Station Corpus Christi was established on the bay, and by 1944 had transformed into a major base with one main air station and six additional stations. Notably, during a March 1960 practice run from the base, future Senator John McCain lost track of his altitude and speed, and his single-seat, single-pistoned-engine AD-6 Skyraider crashed into Corpus Christi Bay and sank to the bottom. He squeezed out of the cockpit, swam ten feet to the surface, and was carried to safety by a rescue helicopter, therefore escaping without major injuries.