DUANE
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Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm gonna tell it. The federal government has had eyes on Point Isabel since 1852. That's not a rumor, that's not a legend, that's just a fact carved into the Gulf Coast like the tide carves into the shore.
Eighteen fifty-two. Think about that the next time you're standing on that waterfront wondering if anybody's watching. Somebody always has been.
Now, the building you're looking at, or the one this marker is standing near, that is the third permanent building erected on this spot. Not the first. Not the second.
The third. Which means two others came before it, and the Gulf of Mexico has a way of making clear what it thinks of permanent structures. This one is part of a line, nine stations in all, stretching along the Gulf of Mexico all the way from Florida to the Texas-Mexico border.
Nine stations, one long vigil. When they built this particular one, they built it with a main floor, an attic, and a lookout tower, all of it lifted up off the ground on wood and concrete pilings. Because again, the Gulf has opinions.
From up in that tower, the U.S. Coast Guard unit stationed here kept watch over the coastline, patrolled these waters, and when the sea decided to swallow somebody whole, they went out and tried to bring them back. That was the work.
Barracks and headquarters, rescue and patrol, year after year on the Texas coast. Nine stations from Florida to the border, and this one, the third try at a permanent home right here at Point Isabel, is still standing. The Gulf's still watching too.
But so are they.
What the marker says
The federal government has operated a coastal installation at Point Isabel since 1852. This structure is the third permanent building erected here, one of a line of nine stations established along the Gulf of Mexico from Florida to the Texas-Mexico border. Originally consisting of a main floor, attic, and lookout tower, all elevated off the ground on wood and concrete pilings, the structure served as barracks and headquarters for the U.S. Coast Guard unit that patrolled the coastline and conducted sea rescues. (1988)