DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm just the voice it found. Now, if you want a piece of land that has done more living per square mile than just about anywhere else on this earth, you pull up a chair and you listen close — because Galveston Island has a story that doesn't quit. It starts as early as 1528, when a Spanish explorer by the name of Cabeza de Vaca got shipwrecked right here on this island.
He survived to write about it — and what he wrote about were the Karankawa Indians, whom he described as cannibalistic. That is not a gentle introduction to a place, but Galveston has never been gentle. The island drew a certain kind of character in those early years.
Between 1815 and 1821, it became headquarters for Jean Lafitte and other adventurers. Whatever they were doing out here, they'd picked the right spot for it — remote, surrounded by water, and with a harbor that the right people were already starting to notice. Stephen F.
Austin noticed. As early as 1825, he was petitioning the Mexican government to establish a port here, because even then, anyone with eyes could see what that harbor was worth. Then came 1836, and Texas was burning bright with revolution.
When President David G. Burnet fled the approach of Mexican General Santa Anna, he fled here — to Galveston — and in April of that year, the island became the temporary capital of the Republic. That is the kind of thing that happens to a place people trust when everything else is uncertain.
After the revolution settled, Galveston didn't slow down — it dug in. It became the first city of the Republic. Immigrants poured through the port.
The Texas Navy was berthed here. When statehood arrived in 1845, the firsts kept coming: Texas's first telegraph in 1854, first national bank in 1865, first electric lights in 1888. This was a city that was always a step ahead.
Then came the Civil War, and Galveston found itself at the center of the principal Texas engagements of that conflict. The port fell to blockading Union troops on October the fourth, 1862. But it didn't stay fallen.
On January the first, 1863 — New Year's Day — General John B. Magruder took it back, and Galveston remained in Confederate hands from that point on. But here is where I need you to slow down with me, because what comes next is the kind of thing that changes a place forever.
September the eighth, 1900. A hurricane packing winds of 120 miles per hour swept a vast tidal wave across the island and killed five thousand people. Five thousand.
The marker says it plainly and I will too: no other American disaster has taken a greater toll. That number deserves a moment of silence before you drive any further. Out of that catastrophe came two things.
A seawall — seventeen feet high and seven and a half miles long — built to stand between the island and whatever the Gulf decides to send next. And a commission form of city government, an innovation born right here in Galveston that went on to spread to municipalities across the country. A city that had just survived the unthinkable turned around and gave the rest of America a new way to govern itself.
Galveston kept going. The port today handles more sulphur than any port in the world. And if you want to get to the island without paying a toll, the Texas Highway Department runs ferries across the two-and-a-half-mile strait between the island and Port Bolivar — a crossing that, when you think about everything this island has been through, feels a little bit like a pilgrimage.
Few spots, the marker says, have played a more exciting role in the life of Texas. After all that — the shipwrecks and the pirates, the fleeing presidents and the naval battles, the hurricane that rewrote American history — I'd say that just might be the understatement of the last five centuries.
What the marker says
Few spots have played a more exciting role in the life of Texas than Galveston Island. Cabeza de Vaca, the Spanish explorer, wrote of the cannibalistic Karankawa Indians when he was shipwrecked here in 1528. The island became headquarters for Jean Lafitte and other adventurers between 1815 and 1821. Importance of the harbor was recognized as early as 1825 when Stephen F. Austin petitioned the Mexican government to establish a port. Galveston became temporary capital of the Republic in April, 1836, when President David G. Burnet fled here at the approach of Mexican Gen. Santa Anna. After the revolution Galveston's place as first city of the Republic became fixed. Immigrants poured through the port. The Texas Navy was berthed here. With statehood in 1845 came continued growth; Texas first telegraph (1854), first national bank (1865), first electric lights (1888). Capture and recapture of Galveston were principal Texas engagements of the Civil War. The port fell to blockading Union troops Oct. 4, 1862. It was retaken Jan. 1, 1863, by Gen. John B. Magruder and remained in Confederate hands. Galveston was again on the nation's lips Sept. 8, 1900, when a hurricane packing winds of 120 mph swept a vast tidal wave across the island, killing 5,000. No other American disaster has taken a greater toll. The storm had two immediate results -- construction of a protective seawall 17 feet high and 7-1/2 miles long and creation of a commission form of city government, an innovation that spread to other American municipalities. The port remains one of the state's most important, handling more sulphur than any in the world. Important to sightseers and motorists are the toll-free ferries operated by the Texas Highway Department across the 2-1/2-mile strait between the island and Port Bolivar.