DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker at Texas City tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, picture an open field just north of a Gulf Coast town, and picture it empty — because what happened next filled it up in a hurry. After the Civil War broke out in Mexico in 1910, disturbances along the Rio Grande kept multiplying, and President William Taft started thinking hard about putting more U.S. military muscle down near that border.
Two Texas City men saw an opportunity in that thinking. Hugh B. Moore, a terminal railway executive, and Augustus B.
Wolvin — developer of Texas City's port and owner of a steamship line — went to work on U.S. officials. They had an argument to make: Texas City was a strategic point for any possible troop movements into Mexico. Somebody listened.
In March of 1913, roughly fourteen thousand army personnel descended on that open field just north of town. Let me paint that picture for you: three infantry brigades, one regiment each of cavalry and field artillery, one battalion of engineers, one signal corps company, one field bakery, one field hospital. That is a city unto itself, sprouted up out of nowhere.
But the piece of this that'll really stop you — the aviation squadron. Eight aircraft, right there on the Texas Gulf Coast, and that air squadron was the first of its kind in the entire nation. The pilots set flight records for distance and speed, and when they weren't doing that, they were putting on flying exhibitions for spectators who had never seen anything like it in their lives.
Meanwhile, Texas City itself was doing just fine. The camp brought an economic boom to the town — money moving, people moving, the whole place humming. Then 1915 came.
A major hurricane destroyed the camp. Damaged buildings across Texas City too. Just like that, the boom ended — abruptly, the marker says, and abruptly is exactly the right word.
The camp was not restored. Many of its personnel were later stationed along the Texas-Mexico border, which had been the point all along. The field went quiet again.
The records stood. The nation's first army air squadron had come and gone, and a hurricane had seen to it that Texas City would have to remember it rather than keep it.
What the marker says
An increasing number of disturbances along Texas' Rio Grande border after Civil War broke out in Mexico in 1910 prompted U. S. President William Taft to consider increasing the U. S. Military presence in the area. Hugh B. Moore, Texas City terminal railway executive, and Augustus B. Wolvin, developer of Texas City's port and owner of a steamship line, persuaded U. S. Officials to establish an army camp in Texas City as a strategic point for possible troop movements into Mexico. In March 1913 approximately 14,000 army personnel, comprising three infantry brigades, one regiment each of cavalry and field artillery, one battalion of engineers, one signal corps company, one field bakery, one field hospital, and an aviation squadron, set up camp here in an open field just north of town. The army camp's air squadron was the first of its kind in the nation. Pilots of the eight aircraft located here set flight records for distance and speed, and entertained spectators with flying exhibitions. A local economic boom brought on by the camp ended abruptly when a major hurricane destroyed the camp and damaged some buildings in Texas City in 1915. The camp was not restored and many of its personnel were later stationed along the Texas-Mexico border.