DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Galveston as the gateway to Texas. Now, before there were highways, before there were railroads cutting across the prairie, before just about anything else — there was the Gulf of Mexico. And from the very earliest documented history, that Gulf was the main point of entry into Texas.
Think about that. The whole story of people coming to this state, wave after wave of them, begins on the water. Some settlers in the 1820s came by keelboat.
Keelboats. They'd pull up along the way, go ashore, kill game, and live off the country — the same way an overland party would survive a long trek. So even the sea voyage had a little frontier survival built right into it.
Now, some settlers did choose to come by land. And that is a choice that deserves some sympathy. Those roads were wet, rough, and crossed by countless rivers.
And those rivers? In most cases, they were crossed only by costly, ill-tended ferries — many of them manned by unscrupulous operators who made it their business to prey upon naive travelers. So you could take your chances on the Gulf, or you could pay through the nose to a scoundrel with a flat-bottomed boat.
Neither one sounds like a particularly restful journey. Texas had other ports of entry, to be sure. Velasco, Quintana, Lavaca, Indianola, Matagorda, Port Isabel, Houston, Corpus Christi — the coast was dotted with ways in.
But Galveston dominated. It had the best natural harbor between Pensacola and Veracruz. Let that geography sink in for a moment.
That is a long stretch of coastline, and Galveston sat at the top of it. In the nineteenth century, it was a chief port of entry into the state, a sister city to New Orleans, and passage between the two was so well-organized that the connection became almost routine. Who came through?
Oh, just about everybody. Statesmen and speculators. Teachers and soldiers.
Clergymen and doctors. Merchants, craftsmen, and tourists. Galveston welcomed them all, and its prominence among the major ports of entry in North America eventually caught the attention of the United States government.
They constructed quarantine and immigration stations there — important ones, replacing earlier stations that had been built and operated by the City of Galveston and the State of Texas themselves. Those stations saw tens of thousands of immigrants come through. Some settled right there in Galveston and became part of the city's diverse population.
But most of them dispersed — fanned out across Texas, took root in the soil of this enormous state, and aided in its growth and development. All those lives. All those families.
All those stories that became Texas stories — a whole lot of them started right there on the docks of Galveston, with the Gulf at their backs and everything else still ahead of them.
What the marker says
From the time of the earliest documented history, the Gulf of Mexico has been the main point of entry into Texas. Some settlers of the 1820s even came by keelboat, going ashore along the way to kill game, the same way an overland party would live off the country while traveling. Some settlers did choose to come to Texas by land, but a poor system of wet and rough roads was crossed by countless rivers. In most cases, the rivers were crossed only by costly, ill-tended ferrier, many of which were manned by unscrupulous operators who preyed upon naive Travellers. Galveston in the 19th century was a chief port of entry into Texas. It was sister city to New Orleans, so well-organized was passage from one to the other. Texas ports of entry included the Velasco, Quintana, Lavaca, Indianola, Matagorda, Port Isabel, Houston and Corpus Christi. Yet Galveston - with the best natural harbor between Pensacola and Veracruz - dominated travel both into and out of Texas. This port welcomed statesmen, speculators, teachers, soldiers, clergymen, doctors, merchants, craftsman and tourists. Galveston's prominence among the major ports of entry in North America led to the construction by the United States government of important quarantine and immigration stations that replaced earlier ones built and operated by the City of Galveston and the State of Texas. These stations saw tens of thousands of immigrants enter Galveston. While sone settled within the city and contributed to Galveston's diverse population, most dispersed across Texas and aided in the growth and development of the state. (1965, 2010)