Our History

There is little written history of those early days on Padre Island with most of our information coming from explorers or reports of people who were shipwrecked on the Island.

In 1519, Spanish explorer Alonso Alvarez de Pineda was on a mapping mission for the

King of Spain when he discovered the Brazos Santiago Pass. He described treacherous sandbars and a shoreline littered with spars and rigging from ships that had wrecked many years before. Pineda also made contact with numerous groups of Indians (Coahuiltecans) living near the mouth of the Rio Grande. These same Indians gained notoriety when in 1554 three ships, part of a treasure fleet outbound for Spain, wrecked along the shores of Padre Island. Over three hundred people survived only to be hunted down and killed by local Indians while trying to walk southward for safety. Only two survived to tell the story.

Lamenting the loss of human life, the pragmatic Spaniards sent ships and men who managed to salvage over 40% of the treasure that the three ships carried. The rest lay buried beneath the sands of Padre Island. It was the rediscovery and excavation of one of these ships by local treasure hunters in 1967 that led to the institution of the Texas State Antiquity Laws which covers all publicly owned property in the State of Texas. This jurisdiction also extends ten and 3⁄4 miles into the Gulf of Mexico.

In 1749, Jose Escandon led an expedition of 600 men to explore the Rio Grande Valley.

He reported a few scattered huts and the occasional shell midden as the only tangible evidence of man’s presence on the coast. Farther inland, he came upon many different tribes of Indians. Escandon’s report led to the successful colonization of the Lower Rio Grande Valley in 1751.

Twenty years later, a military patrol found an abandoned village of mud huts near the southern tip of the Island. Also found, just across Brazos Pass, were skeletal remains of a twenty gun British warship long ago abandoned.

Except for the yearly migration of local Indians, the Island itself would remain largely

uninhabited. Seventy years later, Captain Ben McCulloch, led a company of Texas Rangers down the Padre’s Island (as it was now called) from Corpus Christi at the onset of the Mexican War. “The island is uninhabited save by one old man,” McCulloch reported, “who follows the business of a wrecker, and lives not far from Point Isabel, in a wild-looking place, which he calls, after himself, Tilley’s Camp. Uncle Tilley lives there, and employs himself in gathering the wrecks of cargoes with which the beach is strewn, seeming perfectly happy in his loneliness, the undisputed lord of this desert isle.” Tilley became famous throughout the nation as, the “Hermit of Padre Island.” Shortly after he died his obituary was published in hundreds of eastern newspapers.

Fifteen years later the sands of Padre Island once again felt the tread of marching men, except this time it was not the soldiers of one country bent on wresting the land from another. Instead, it was the tread of fellow countrymen determined to maintain a union. Though most of the battles of that war were fought in far-away places, the depot at Brazos Santiago was home to the Northern Soldiers who sallied forth one rainy May night in 1865 in an effort to capture some Rebel positions westward towards Brownsville. Though boys in blue had superior numbers, the Confederates under the command of Rip Ford, carried the day and the last battle of the Civil War was won by the Southerners. Several hundred Union troopers were captured with 120 wounded and one killed outright. Unfortunately for the victorious rebels, the war had actually ended five weeks prior. The Battle of Palmetto Ranch, as it became known, was the last official battle of the Civil War. To visit the battle site drive west from Port Isabel on State Highway 48. Turn south on FM 511 at the Port of Brownsville and drive south until the road intersects with State Highway 4. Turn east and the marker can be found a few miles down the road towards Boca Chica Beach.

Padre Nicholas Balli, for whom the Island gets its name, was the first European to bring

families to the Island. Twenty-six miles north of the Island’s southern tip, he and his nephew Juan, founded El Rancho Santa Cruz de Buena Vista (later known as the Lost City), where he kept cattle, horses and mules. The actual ranch and outbuildings were little more than thatched huts known as jacals. Because of its natural fences of water, the Island was a perfect spot for raising livestock. In 1811, Padre Balli stated in his will that he owned 1,000 head of cattle. He also built the first church on the Island for the conversion of the Karankawa Indians and for the benefit of the settlers. Ironically, Balli never lived on

the Island that bears his name today. He left the day to day operations of the ranch to his nephew Juan, who also held title to a sizable amount of the Island, while he (the Padre) spent most of his time on the mainland ministering to the spiritual and material needs of his people. Padre Balli died on April 16, 1829, and was buried near Matamoros. A statue of Padre Balli stands sentinel at the eastern foot of the Queen Isabella Memorial Causeway. Juan operated the ranch until the storm of 1844 after which he moved to the mainland. The ranch was abandoned, but only a few short years would pass before its new occupants arrived on the scene.

John Singer’s lost treasure has been the subject of numerous

stories; the stuff from which legends are born. During the final days of the Mexican War, John and Johanna Singer along with several sons, had been beating down the coast in their schooner, the Alice Sadell, when a severe storm drove their craft aground near the center of the Island. It was there the family discovered the remains of Santa Cruz, the old ranch owned by Padre Balli. The Singer’s bought the land from Juan Balli in 1851 paying $2,500 for a like amount of acres that included the headquarters of the old ranch. Wild cattle, left over from the Padre’s ranch, were easy to catch and by the time Lincoln was elected, the Singer’s herd numbered over 1500, but, this wasn’t the only source of income for the newcomers. It was rumored that John and his boys, who were by now avid beachcombers, had accumulated somewhere in the neighborhood of $60,000 worth of jewels, Spanish coins and gold bullion. When the Civil War broke out, John decided to move his family to Flour Bluff near Corpus Christi. But before leaving, figuring that his money would be safer buried on the Island, John and the boys filled several stone jars and buried them at a site where they believed they would easily be found in the future. After the War, the Singer’s returned for their treasure only to find that another great storm, much like the one that had wrecked them twenty years earlier had totally inundated the Island, destroying the ranch headquarters and washing away all the markers John had planted. Though he and his sons were noted beachcombers, the treasure would remain lost.

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By 1912, the southern part of Padre, now known as “Tarpon Beach,” was home to a hotel and a cluster of fishing

camps. Visitors arrived by ferry boat and were offloaded near where Children’s Beach is located today in Isla Blanca Park. From there it was a long walk across a wooden boardwalk that led to the shores of Padre Island. One had to be at the landing to catch the return ferry at dusk or risk having to spend the night on the Island. Completion of the first causeway in 1954 finally opened Padre Island to development. In the ensuing years a second causeway replaced the first in 1974.

The residents of the Island voted for incorporation in April 1973. Of the 158 votes cast, 128 were in favor of incorporation while 28 were against. Thus the Town of South Padre Island was born. In 2009, the proposed Home Rule Charter was approved by the voters and South Padre Island officially became a City. ` Article contributed by Steve Hathcock www.southpadretv.tv, steve@southpadretv.tv