Texas Gulf Coast

Dusk at South Padre Island

Texas Gulf Coast is an intertidal zone which boundaries the coastal region of South Texas, Southeast Texas, and the Texas Coastal Bend. Texas shoreline length which boundaries the coastal geography of the Gulf of Mexico is 367 miles (591 km) according to CRS^[1] and 3,359 miles (5,406 km) according to NOAA.^[2]

Administrative Divisions of Texas Gulf Coast[]

Administrative Divisions of Texas Coast

Counties of Texas coast

Divisions of Texas Coast

There are fourteen Texas counties which encompass the Gulf of Mexico coastal boundary;

Topography of Texas Gulf Coast[]

Residence Elevation on Texas Coast

Stilt house structure built to safeguard and oppose hazardous tropical storm surges

Timber piling structures elevated for hurricanes and severe storm surges

The Texas coastal bend sustains the Texas–Gulf water resource region as a hydrological cycle unifying a drainage basin of river deltas at the littoral zone of the Texas Gulf Coast.

Texas Gulf Bays and Coastal Waterways[]

The Texas gulf coast has a geography of eight coastal bays and bountiful with waterway inlets;

Waterway Inlets of Texas Barrier Islands and Seacoast[]

The Texas coastal bend has a populous of navigable waterways as a concourse to the Gulf Coast of the United States and the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway.

National and State Parks of Texas Gulf Shores[]

Nightfall satellite image with Gulf of Mexico and Texas coast

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department oversees the Texas state parks located on the Gulf of Mexico shores with the exception of Padre Island seashore which is maintained by the National Park Service.

Nature and Wildlife Sanctuaries of Texas Coastal Region[]

The United States Fish and Wildlife Service governs the nature reserves as land parcels of the National Wildlife Refuge System bordering the Texas coastal shores.

History of Texas Gulf Coast[]

European Colonization of Texas Coast[]

Exploration of Texas Coast

Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca illustration of turbulent surf landing

La Salle at Gulf of Mexico & Matagorda Bay

La Salle's settlement in 1686

La Salle monument at Blind Bayou

The Texas marginal seacoast acknowledged the arrival or entradas of Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, a Spanish conquistador of the New World and a successor of Christopher Columbus, who embarked on a calamitous coastal ship landing near the shore of Galveston Island on November 6, 1528.^[3][4][5]

The Texas oceanic basin was colonized by French king Louis XIV from 1684 to 1689. In 1684, Robert Cavelier de La Salle sailing under the French ensigns guided an expedition in the Spanish Sea of four ships known as L'Aimable, La Belle, Le Joly, and St. François. La Salle was pursuing the river delta of the Gulf of Mexico and the Mississippi River while seeking the French colony of New France. In 1685, La Salle navigated beyond the Mississippi River Delta erroneously discovering Matagorda Bay where the French cargo vessels anchored near Indianola, Texas.^[6][7] During 1685 to 1689, the La Salle colonists adventured north of Lavaca Bay establishing a land settlement known as Fort St. Louis near Garcitas Creek and Inez, Texas ratifying the French colonization of Texas.^{[8][9][10][11]}

The Texas Gulf coast attested to a second wave of the European colonization of the Americas with the introduction of colonialism by the Spanish Empire in 1690.^[12] The España cultural evolution substantiated a christianization or religious conquest by the transatlantic crossing of the Spanish Inquisition.^[13][14] The España colonization established the Viceroyalty of New Spain administratively structuring an interior province known as Spanish Texas from 1690 to 1821.^[15] Beginning in 1810, the Mexican War of Independence was settled with the Spanish Empire ennobling a discontinuation of the Mexican Inquisition while creating the First Mexican Empire in 1821.

After the conflict ceased between Mexico and Spain, the Texas uncultivated lands acquired a successive uniformity known as Mexican Texas from 1821 to 1836.^[16][17] Texas independence was expeditiously declared from imperial Mexico with the cessation of the Battle of San Jacinto, capture of Antonio López de Santa Anna, and the impending formation of the Republic of Texas.

French Corsairs of Gulf Waters and Texas Shores[]

The Texas Gulf coast served as a sanctuary for seafaring buccaneers, corsairs or privateers, and non-fictional practitioners of the piracy occupation. Galveston Bay and Matagorda Bay were the Texas coast fertile crescent for anchorage and concealment of the barque, barquentine, and brigantine class sailing vessels.^[18]

Jean Lafitte ca. 1895

Jean Lafitte and Pierre Lafitte, kinship of french basque and sea-going privateers, managed a modest metal forging establishment known as the Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop in the New Orleans French Quarter. In 1807, the 10th United States Congress passed the Embargo Act of 1807 coercing the displacement of the Lafitte's venture to Barataria, Louisiana settled south of New Orleans.^[19]

By 1808, the Lafittes' discovered brigandage to be an invaluable endeavor smuggling pirate booty from Barataria Bay to New Orleans. In 1814, the United States Navy launched a naval offensive on the Baratarian's prize of war enterprise debilitating the Lafitte's French corsair sailing fleet.^[20]

After the remnants of the War of 1812, Jean Lafitte departed the wetlands of Louisiana setting the sails for Galveston Island, Texas.^[21] In early 1817, freebooter Jean Lafitte established a piracy colony at Galveston Island.^[22] Frenchman Lafitte constructed his Maison Rouge residence perpendicular of the Galveston Channel and Pelican Island with the surroundings of a corsair's piracy settlement. The Brethren of the Coast discovered the Galveston landscape to be conducive for passage to the gulf waters for intercepting merchant ships and Spanish Empire armadas accomplishing the nautical journey from the Old World.^[23][24]

In 1814, Lord Byron authored a poetic publication The Corsair which was conceivably an attribute to the life of Jean Lafitte. In 1927, Galveston's William Moody Jr. erected the Jean Lafitte Hotel in the Galveston's Strand Historic District as an observance of privateer Lafitte's origins on the Galveston Island shores.^[25][26]

Mexican State Imperialism and Texas Gulf Coast[]

The Texas Gulf Coast provided a naval supply lifeline for the Texian Army and Texian Militia during the Texas Revolution. The Texian Navy sustained the Texian revolutionary infantry forces by providing a flotilla for the safe passage of munitions and supply provisions from the maritime transport harbors of Mobile and New Orleans while contending with the Mexican state nautical hostilities on the Third Coast.

The Mexican Navy enforced coastline patrols and naval blockades of the Texas Gulf Coast harbors during the strife for Texas Declaration of Independence. The Texas naval forces appropriated four man-of-war schooners as a naval offensive for the sailing ship tactics of the Mexican Navy. The Texas Navy engaged four warships from 1835 to 1838 known as Brutus, Independence, Invincible, and Liberty for the establishment of the Republic of Texas and decisively the Texas annexation on December 29, 1845.

Infectious Disease Epidemic of 19th Century[]

In 1860s, the Texas coastal counties encountered a disease vector consequently arriving in commerce and trade ports through merchant ships, nautical vessels, and seafaring ships along the Texas coastline.^{[27][28][29][30]} The predatorial Aedes aegypti yield an arbovirus or mosquito-borne disease aggressively disseminating an infection known as yellow fever on the South Texas civil parishes.^{[31][32][33][34]}

United States National Security of Texas Gulf Seacoast[]

The Texas Gulf coast had a vital necessity for seacoast defense as the international relations of superiority cultivated during the late 19th century to the mid-20th century. The United States artillery installations were erected during the Spanish-American War and relatively to the world war periods of the 1910s and 1940s.

The Texas coastal artillery command posts were established as casemates or pillboxes developed with reinforced concrete strategically situated at Bolivar Peninsula, Texas and Galveston Island, Texas. The United States Army Coast Artillery Corps commanded the operations of the coastal artillery emplacements which originated as Fort Crockett, Fort San Jacinto, Fort Travis, and inclusion of Sabine Pass.^[35][36][37] The artillery fortifications achieved the purposes of economic warfare or embargo for Galveston Bay, vigilance of maritime security, and safeguarding the trade routes for Galveston harbor and the Port of Houston.

Imagery of Texas Gulf Coast Fortress Installations

☆ Media related to Fort Crockett at Galveston Island at Wikimedia Commons

☆ Media related to Fort San Jacinto at Galveston Island East Point at Wikimedia Commons

☆ Media related to Fort Travis at Bolivar Peninsula at Wikimedia Commons[38]

☆ Media related to Sabine Pass at Gulf of Mexico & Sabine River at Wikimedia Commons[39]

See also[]

References[]

Bibliography[]

Periodical Publications[]

Texas Coastal Science[]

• "Bays and Estuaries". Texas Aquatic Science. Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
• "Coastal Conservation". Audubon Texas. National Audubon Society.
• "Gulf Coast". Education ~ Resources. Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
• "Oceans: The Gulf of Mexico". Texas Aquatic Science. Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
• "Red Tide in Texas". TPWD Harmful Algal Blooms Status. Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
• "Texas Beach Watch". Texas General Land Office. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
• "USGS Texas Coastal Science". USGS Oklahoma-Texas Water Science Center. U.S. Department of the Interior.
• "Wetlands". Texas Aquatic Science. Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

External links[]

• Media related to Bays of Texas at Wikimedia Commons
• Media related to Beaches of Texas at Wikimedia Commons
• Media related to Estuaries in Texas at Wikimedia Commons
• Media related to Texas Coast at Wikimedia Commons
• Gulf Coast (Texas) travel guide from Wikivoyage