We’re spending the week in Port Aransas, so naturally I went digging into its history. And friends, this little beach town has had more names than a stray dog.
Long before any of us, the Karankawa Indians lived on these islands. Then in 1519 a Spanish explorer sailed through the pass, and local legend says the pirate Jean Lafitte hung around here in the early 1800s — supposedly he buried treasure on Mustang Island. If anybody finds it, I get ten percent for the tip.
When settlers finally built a town here, they couldn’t settle on what to call it. In 1888 a businessman named Elihu Ropes bought the entire island for $25,000, so naturally the town became Ropesville. Then in 1896 the whole town — all 250 folks — decided they’d rather be named after the giant silver tarpon filling their waters. So it became Tarpon, Texas. It finally landed on Port Aransas in 1912.
A town that renames itself after a fish is my kind of town.
The Tarpon Inn has been here since 1886 — it started life as an old barracks, and the lobby walls are papered with more than 7,000 signed tarpon scales. Catch a tarpon, sign your scale, stick it on the wall. They’ve been doing it for over a hundred years.
And here’s my favorite part: in May of 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevelt himself came down to fish these waters. He landed a five-foot tarpon, the photographs went out across the whole country, and just like that, a 250-person fishing village was famous. His signed scale is still hanging at the Tarpon Inn.
It hasn’t been easy living. The 1919 hurricane leveled the town, and Harvey came straight at it in 2017. But Port Aransas does what Texas towns do — it rebuilds, reopens the bait shops, and gets back to fishing.
I’ll be reporting from the beach all week. If I catch anything bigger than a sunburn, you’ll read about it here. — Dinky
Published by Dinky
Hello, my name is Dinky. This is a name given to me in my first marriage. It is my grandma name. A few other selected individuals address me as such. I am a onetime divorced, one-time widowed single woman trying to discover the real me. I will take you on my journey. Read if you are interested.
I feel that I am a hard knock educated person. I have been a working mother, a stay-at-home wife, a Christian, a caretaker, and a retired woman. I am always seeking wisdom on how to improve as a person and hopefully I can share as I learn more.
I have many interests. I enjoy cooking because I enjoy eating. I am not a great cook but am eager to try new recipes. I will share these with you. I have a degree in business management and a certification in food science. I have worked man years in the food manufacturing industry.
I also have a small farm. I have some cows, a donkey, some wild horses a bull and two dogs. I would like to explore more homesteading techniques and become self-sustained. Maybe we can learn together. I encourage your input and ideas.
I have spent many years learning how to make quilts. This is another hobby I would like to get back into. I am always up to learn new crafts and explore new projects.
I am really big on goal setting and finding ways to make my life simpler. I will take you through some of my ideas on that progress.
Lastly, but biggest on my list is that I am a Christian in continual growth mode. I will never be all that I should, and I will never judge people in regard to their own journey. I am always open for discussion on this topic.
If you find my talks interesting, feel free to follow me. If I say or write anything offensive feel free to call me out. I am up for improvement and self-growth.
Welcome to learning about me and helping me in my self-discovery.
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