Corpus Christi Bay boasts square miles of shoreline. The beaches are well worth a visit. Find inspiration for your trip in our vacation guide at CorpusChristi. Find more articles like this in Vacation News. Browse Vacation News for more articles like this. Did you know? Corpus Christi is one of the best cities in the world for windsurfing. By JoAnna Kopp May 05, View Comments. German nobleman Baron Johann von Rachnitz tried to found a German settlement there, but the ship carrying the colonists was prevented from landing by the French during the Pastry War.
Around the same time, abolitionist Benjamin Lundy proposed the establishment of a colony of former slaves at the site; however, he dropped the plans after the outbreak of the Texas Revolution. Aubrey established a trading post on the west shore of Corpus Christi Bay, reportedly near what is now the block of North Broadway.
Kinney and Aubrey quickly developed a brisk illegal trade with Mexico. In Capt. Enrique Villarreal , a rancher from Matamoros who had been granted the land by the Mexican government, led a force of men to reclaim his property and seize the arms stored at Kinney's stockade.
Kinney, who at the time reportedly had only eight men under his command, however, managed to negotiate an agreement to purchase the land. Kinney and Aubrey's post soon became the focus of trade in the area. Attacks by Mexican bands forced the abandonment of the post in , but Kinney returned a short time later and reestablished his business.
A post office opened the same year with Aubrey as postmaster. By the mids the settlement—now known as Corpus Christi "the Body of Christ" —was a small village. An English visitor described it as consisting of "Colonel Kinney's fortified house, about a half dozen stores, and a grog shop or two"; another visitor around the same time reported that the village had some fifty families. In the town became county seat the of newly formed Nueces County. It was incorporated on April 25, , but because no public officials were elected, the corporation was repealed, and the town was not reincorporated until February 16, In September Gen.
Zachary Taylor 's army encamped nearby, and in the late s numerous fortune-seekers passed through to join wagon trains headed for California, but few settlers put down permanent roots. In Kinney organized a state fair—reportedly the first in Texas—in an attempt to put Corpus Christi on the map, but it proved to be a failure and did little to spur the town's growth. A yellow fever epidemic struck the town in , decimating the population, and difficulty in obtaining fresh water plagued the city throughout the s.
The chief impediment to growth, however, was the lack of a deepwater port, a problem that occupied the town's leaders for the next seventy years. Large ships, unable to enter Corpus Christi Bay, were forced to anchor offshore where supplies were offloaded onto lighters, shallow-draft vessels capable of navigating the narrow, twisting channels of the bay. Kinney, undismayed by the problems, continued to promote the town, placing glowing advertisements in northern newspapers and in Europe, which breathlessly described the natural beauty and business opportunities of the area.
Some immigrants came and the population grew slowly, but the town continued to reflect something of a frontier character through the early s. Public drunkenness and lawlessness were common. For many years there was no effective city government. By the middle of the decade, however, the situation began to change. The first schools opened around , and by the eve of the Civil War the town had several established churches and several fraternal lodges. During the s steamships of the Morgan Lines began making regular stops, and the volume of trade through the city gradually increased.
By it was reported that some forty-five vessels carried on trade between Corpus Christi and Indianola alone. In the population reached 1, and the town reported four teachers, one music instructor, three ministers, a priest, three doctors, and eight lawyers.
Men, however, outnumbered women, with seventy-three more men than women, a reflection of the town's continuing frontier character. Nearly one-third of all of all residents were foreign born. During the early years of the Civil War, Corpus Christi served as an important crossroads for Confederate commerce. In the s, oil was the main commodity and today still brings in more than ever.
By the late s, the Port was dispensing more than twelve thousand bags of grain a day. Grain, an important material had large amounts of bulk passing through. Other cargo such as cotton, steel articles, food products, and sometimes even automobiles came in and out of the Port.
With the decisions of these entrepreneurs and the founders of the bay, the Port of Corpus Christi would have never had existed. With the first settlers and inhabitants stepping onto an island not knowing that they encounter a booming business in sea-trade, but rather a beautiful sight that pertained an abundance amount of material. Lessoff, Alan. Austin: University of Texas Press, Ryan, Robert, and Charles W. Corpus Christi: Economic Impact of the Port.
Austin: University of Texas, Port of Corpus Christi 50 th Anniversary.
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