DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll pass it along just as it stands. Now, Galveston has always been a city that knew how to take a punch — but this story starts before she'd even had time to throw her first one. Back in the late 1830s, ships were sailing into Galveston harbor carrying something nobody had paid a ticket for: yellow fever, and a whole catalog of other communicable diseases riding in with unregulated immigrants pouring through the port.
The young city didn't wait long to push back. By 1839, Galveston had already put quarantine measures on the books. And then in 1853, she went further — built Texas' very first quarantine station right out on the eastern tip of Galveston Island.
That ought to have been the end of it. It was not. Yellow fever came back in 1867, and then again in 1868, as if it hadn't made its point the first time.
So the city built a larger quarantine station in 1870. Bigger. Sturdier.
Ready for whatever might come. What came was a hurricane, in 1875, and the station was destroyed. Now if you know anything about Galveston, you're starting to see a pattern here — and we haven't even gotten to 1900 yet.
The state stepped in next, putting up new facilities in 1879, and then again in 1885, at a site in Galveston known as Port Point. The idea was the same as it had always been: ships suspected of harboring infected crew, passengers, or cargo were not allowed to enter Galveston's port. Simple enough in principle.
In practice, those inspectors were holding the line between the Gulf of Mexico and the whole interior of Texas. By 1892, the state had built a new station, this time on nearby Pelican Island. And then came the storm of 1900 — and that station was destroyed too.
Texas built its last quarantine station back at the Fort Point site in 1902, and that one merged with Federal operations in 1919. But here's where the story shifts just a little. Out on Pelican Island, a federally funded facility was taking shape — ten structures in all — completed in 1915, secured in no small part through the efforts of Galveston's Federal Liaison, Colonel Walter Gresham.
Ten structures. One island. Thirty-five years of work ahead of it.
When the Pelican Island Federal Quarantine Station finally closed in 1950, it had inspected an estimated thirty thousand ships, and through those inspections it had seen an estimated seven hundred fifty thousand immigrants arrive on Texas soil. Seven hundred fifty thousand people, each one of them passing through that station before they could set foot on the mainland. Every one of them checked.
Every one of them counted. That little island out in Galveston Bay — battered by fever and storm and the long weight of history — turned out to be the front door to Texas for three-quarters of a million souls. Not a bad thing to have stood for.
What the marker says
Unregulated entry of immigrants through Galveston in the late 1830s greatly contributed to local outbreaks of yellow fever and other communicable diseases. The young city instituted quarantine measures in 1839 and in 1853 built Texas' first quarantine station on the eastern tip of Galveston Island. Yellow fever returned to plague the community in 1867 and 1868. A larger quarantine station, built by the city in 1870, was destroyed by hurricane winds in 1875. The state built new facilities in 1879 and again in 1885 at a site in Galveston known as Port Point. Ships suspected of harboring infected crew, passengers, or cargo were not allowed to enter Galveston's port. A new station, built on nearby Pelican Island by the state in 1892, was destroyed in the storm of 1900. Texas built its last quarantine station at the Fort Point site in 1902. This station merged with Federal operations in 1919. A federally funded 10-structure quarantine facility, secured with the help of Galveston's Federal Liaison Colonel Walter Gresham, was completed here on Pelican Island in 1915. The Pelican Island Federal Quarantine Station, which closed in 1950, inspected an estimated 30,000 ships that brought an estimated 750,000 immigrants to Texas during its 35 years of operation. (1993)