SAND BREATHES NEW LIFE INTO KING FISHER BEACH

Matthew Westmoreland/mwestmoreland@vicad.com McCoy Traugott 3, paddles around the waters of King Fisher Beach. Behind him, his brothers, Dobson, 4, and Tolan, 6, share a kayak. SAND BREATHES NEW LIFE INTO KING FISHER BEACH

BY SAMANTHA DOUTY Victoria Advocate

PORT O’CONNOR — Umbrellas spread over the hot sand at King Fisher Beach with beach dwellers retreating from the sun underneath among them were Kay Henderson and her two friends.

With the smell of sunscreen in the air and cold drinks in their hands, the three Round Rock women enjoyed a day of their three-day weekend away from home.

“It’s a great getaway,” Ann Morton, 63, said.

She and Rosie Lee, 57, were staying with Henderson at her vacation house in Port O’Connor.

Henderson uses the beach as an escape from work, she said, but it wasn’t always that way.

The beach recently received a deposit of sand and other materials from the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, which began dredge work in April. The Army Corps of Engineers commissioned the project with King Fisher Beach on the receiving end of the materials.

This was the breath of life the beach needed, Henderson, 65, said. She has been coming to the beach for the past six decades and said the area used to be a sea wall that dropped to the water. The sand was nearly non-existent.

Matthew Westmoreland/mwestmoreland@vicad.com An inviting beach chair sits alone in the water at King Fisher Beach.

“I really like how they did all the sand,” Henderson said.

Now, she and her friends sit in chairs nestled in the white sand with the breeze coming off the water keeping them cool.

“Before there was no beach to call a beach,” Morton said.

Next to the trio were Pauline and Todd Traugott, of Victoria. They sat in chairs with their feet in the water, watching their nephews play in the waves.

Seagulls called out from overhead as the young boys cut through the water with their orange oars. Their blue canoes rocked side to side as slight waves broke against them.

The Victoria couple brought Todd’s brother and his sons from Fredericksburg to Port O’Connor for the day. They went shark fishing in the morning and made their way to King Fisher Beach for some afternoon fun.

“It looks way better than the way it was before,” Todd said.

In the distance, kids ran across the hot sand toward the pier. People continued to show up and stake their part of the beach with a towel and an umbrella.

“It looks great. It needed (the sand),” Pauline said, looking at the area around her. “It brought a lot of families out.”

Matthew Westmoreland/mwestmoreland@vicad.com Dobson Traugott, 4, and his brother, Tolan, 6, splash in the water at King Fisher Beach.