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Issue 588
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The voice of The Island since 1996
July 23, 2015
Around The Island
Weekly
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By Dale Rankin editor@islandmoon.com
New Island Traffic Light Going to Council
By Dale Rankin A plan to place a new traffic light on South Padre Island Drive at its intersection with Aquarius Street is set to go before the Corpus Christi City Council at its August 11 meeting for approval of funding.
A large Green turtle came ashore just south of Packery Channel just after midnight Tuesday morning. Tony Amos and Guy Davis from the Animal Rehabilitation Keep (ARK) answered the call and made the scene. The best anyone can tell the turtle did not leave any eggs behind but wandered around awhile until too many people showed up for her comfort and she took to the surf.
The new traffic light will be here, at S.P.I.D. and Aquarius.
City staff and the Island Strategic Action Committee have recommended approval of the light which also has had the backing of District 4 City Councilwoman Colleen McIntyre. The total cost of the project is $650,000 for the project, which will also realign the roadway. $420,000 of the money will be paid by the developer of the adjacent property with the remainder coming from the city in the form of bond funds included in a 2014 vote. Pape-Dawson Engineers, Inc., the Developer’s consultant, is completing the plans, specifications and estimates.
The bad news is that Eddie Aguilar and the guys on Hasta Luego (“see you later� for you non-Spanish speakers) only got one good bite all day during the Poco Bueno Fishing Tournament out of Port O’Conner last Saturday. The good news is that it was this guy, a 575-pound Blue Marlin which was the largest caught by exactly one pound.
We are told it is very unusual for Green turtles to visit local beaches. If you find a turtle on the beach keep traffic clear and call the folks at the ARK or Donna Shaver at Padre Island National Seashore.
Dirty Birds The Island’s rugby team, yes we have one, finished second in the tournament that is held each year on the beach just south of Packery Channel. The sand flies each year as teams and players from all over the state come to The Island to play. Last year was the first year for The Island team and this year they played without the benefit of any practice losing only one game to the team that eventually won.
Odds and ends The iceman cometh‌several times per day as ice on The Island has a half-life of a couple of nanoseconds. And folks, it’s not just the heat or the humidity – it’s both. The water depth through Packery Channel continues to be good. There is a deep hole just inside the 361 Bridge and some shoaling on the south side of the basin near the entrance to Lake Padre. Researchers who monitor the channel for the city say they are surprised at the swiftness of the currents making their way through Lake Padre and the currents keep the depth in the lake good. Plans call for the width of the water passage between Packery and Lake Padre to be widened and for a new canal that will connect the passage to the water exchange bridge due to go under SPID near the Schlitterbahn site. That will mean even more currents through the lake, which has held a surprising assortment of blue water fish over the years. The SPID Strip from the JFK to Whitecap is getting crazy folks. Drivers are taking dangerous chances to get into traffic. Be careful out there and say hello if you see us Around The Island.
Justin Aguilar landed the fish and under the rules no one else could touch the line or rod during the hour and a half it took him to fight it. The Hasta Luego is a 55-foot Viking,
A Little Island History
known far and wide as the “Pink Boat� for the color of its hull, and also on board were Captain Dee Wallace, 1st Mate Dougie Edwards, Corbin Plumlee, and Jack Kenworthey. The Poco Bueno is an invitationonly tournament founded in 1969. The name loosely translates to “It’s Okay� but the tournament is more than just okay; it is fair to say that the Poco Bueno is the Superbowl of tournaments on the Texas Coast and winning it comes with serious bragging rights for Justin and the crew.
The impetus for the light came from San Antonio developer Walter Busby who owns a five-acre tract of land on the east side of the intersection where he plans to build a 101room Hampton Inn and a retail development. He told the ISAC that the light was necessary to build the hotel. Island residents who access SPID through the Aquarius intersection supported the light.
Plans call for a warning light and sign to be placed on the JFK Causeway as drivers approach The Island to warn that there is a light ahead.
The biggest question about the light, which was called for in a 2011 Island traffic study, was
If approved by the council construction is scheduled to start in late 2015.
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The Story of Colt Firearms
Editor’s note: Keith Guthrie was the owner of several newspapers around South Texas. He wrote several well-researched local history books including, the History of San Patricio County, Raw Frontier, and Texas Forgotten Ports. The following story is based in his research. The six shooter pistol that was one of the guns that won the West and the most effective model of the weapon is arguably the Walker Colt which was made by the Colt Patient Firearms Company. The fact that the gun was designed by Texas Ranger Samuel Walker is well known. Samuel Colt was broke and looking for a market for his pistol when the State of Texas began buying them to arm the Texas Rangers who then took them with them to Mexico during the U.S. Mexican War and from there their use spread throughout the west.
A Colt number 5 with all the accessories breathe some life into the town of Lamar near Rockport. The town was founded during the Texas Revolution in 1836 and by 1840 visionary Colonel Pryor Lea was trying to bring in a rail line to connect Lamar, Goliad, on San Antonio. The
But less known, and there are many versions of this story, is how Walker and Colt met and followed the path that changed both their lives. In 1988 when working on his book Texas Forgotten Ports Guthrie interviewed relatives of those alive in the 1950s when the events happened, and reviewed documents from that period to find piece together the story of how the Gun That Won the West began here in the Coastal Bend. In the 1850s a group of investors were trying to
Aransas Road Company granted a charter in 1852 but the railroad was not built. But when Lea promoted his railroad plan he sought investors and three of them were three men from Connecticut Erastus Williams and Samuel and James Colt, founders of the Colt Patient Firearms Company who bought a one-quarter interest in 14,000 acres of land which included Lookout Peninsula and Goose Island. They also provided money to promote Lamar as a port. From there the story takes two different paths that both lead to the Colt brothers meeting Samuel Walker.
Samuel Colt
whether it would cause vehicles to back up the top of the JFK Bridge at peak times causing high- impact collisions and what effect it may have on the already crowded northbound SPID as vehicles try to leave The Island on afternoons during the busy summer season. A traffic count showed that 55,000 cars passed through that intersection on Saturday, July 4.
The first starts with a bill in 1850 for $12,500 against the State of Texas during its days as a Republic. How that bill was settled is lost to history but what is known is that
Island Invasion This Weekend! An Army of Occupation will land in Port Aransas this Sunday, July 26, in Port Aransas. Troops in period costumes will reenact the events of the morning of July 26, 1845 when the first United States flag in Texas was planted on St. Jose Island. The USS Alabama arrived at the beach with the Third United States infantry which was the vanguard of the U.S. Army of Occupation from New Orleans in anticipation with a war with Mexico over the Nueces Strip, the land between the mouth of the Nueces and the Rio Grande rivers where the city of Corpus Christi is now located.
A 26-star American Flag will be part of the reenactment. On board were a group of officers, mostly West Pointers, who would later fill the pages of the history of the Civil War: twenty-four year-old 2nd Lt. Ulysses S. Grant, Robert E. Lee, William Tecumseh Sherman, future Confederate President Jefferson Davis, future Confederate General Braxton Bragg, future U.S. General Phil Sheridan, Stonewall Jackson, future Brigadier General Joe Hooker, and the future 14th President of the United States Franklin Pierce. The historic landing will be recreated with period costumes and weapons this Sunday, July 26 at the county parks office near Horace
Invasion continued on A6