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Padre Island
Padre Island is the largest of the Texas barrier islands and the world's longest barrier island. The island is located along Texas's southern coast of the Gulf of Mexico and is noted for its white sandy beaches. Meaning ''father'' in Spanish, it was named after Father José Nicolás Ballí (c.1770-1829), who owned the island and served as a missionary priest and collector of finances for all the churches in the Rio Grande Valley. He also founded the first mission in present-day Cameron County. Padre Island is the second-largest island by area in the contiguous United States, after Long Island in New York on the Atlantic Coast. It is about long and wide, stretching from the city of Corpus Christi, in the north, to the resort community of South Padre Island in the south. The island is oriented north-south, bordered by the Gulf of Mexico on the east and Laguna Madre on the west. The island's northern end connects to Mustang Island by roadway. The southern end of the isl ...
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Rio Grande Valley (Texas)
Lower Rio Grande Valley (), often referred to as the Rio Grande Valley (RGV) of South Texas, is a region located in the southernmost part of Texas, along the northern bank of the Rio Grande. It is also known locally as the Valley or the 956 (the area code for the region). It is a region spanning the border of Texas and Mexico located in a floodplain of the Rio Grande near its mouth. The region includes the southernmost tip of South Texas and a portion of northern Tamaulipas, Mexico. In the United States, it consists of the Brownsville-Harlingen and McAllen-Edinburg-Mission Metropolitan Area, McAllen-Edinburg-Mission metropolitan areas, and the Rio Grande City-Roma, TX mSA, Rio Grande City-Roma and Raymondville, Texas micropolitan area, Raymondville micropolitan areas. In Mexico, it consists of the Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Matamoros, Río Bravo, Tamaulipas, Río Bravo, and Reynosa metropolitan areas. The area is generally bilingual in English and Spanish, with a fair amount of Spangl ...
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South Padre Island, Texas
South Padre Island is a resort town in Cameron County, Texas, United States. It is part of the Brownsville, Texas, Brownsville–Harlingen, Texas, Harlingen Brownsville-Harlingen metropolitan area, Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 2,066 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The town is located on South Padre Island, a barrier island with the Laguna Madre situated to the leeward of the island and the Gulf of Mexico on the windward flank, along the Texas Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast. South Padre Island is accessible via the Queen Isabella Causeway from the town of Port Isabel, Texas, Port Isabel. South Padre Island is named after Padre Ballí, José Nicolás Ballí (Padre Ballí), a Catholic priest and settler. The island is only accessible via the Queen Isabella Causeway and has become a popular tourist destination for both the spring, summer and for winter Texans. It features many activities such as fishing, snorkeling, Beach Park at Isla ...
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Laguna Madre (United States)
The Laguna Madre is a long, shallow, hypersaline lagoon along the western coast of the Gulf of Mexico in Nueces, Kenedy, Kleberg, Willacy and Cameron Counties in Texas, United States. It is one of seven major estuaries along the Gulf Coast of Texas. The roughly long Saltillo Flats land bridge divides it into Upper and Lower lagoons joined by the Intracoastal Waterway, which has been dredged through the lagoon. Cumulatively, Laguna Madre is approximately long, the length of Padre Island in the US. The main extensions include Baffin Bay in Upper Laguna Madre, Red Fish Bay just below the Saltillo Flats, and South Bay near the Mexican border. As a natural ecological unit, the Laguna Madre of the United States is the northern half of the ecosystem as a whole, which extends into Tamaulipas, Mexico approximately south of the US border, to the vicinity of the Rio Soto La Marina and the town of La Pesca, extending approximately through USA and Mexico in total.Tunnell, Jr. John ...
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Spanish Colonization Of The Americas
The Spanish colonization of the Americas began in 1493 on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola (now Haiti and the Dominican Republic) after the initial 1492 voyage of Genoa, Genoese mariner Christopher Columbus under license from Queen Isabella I of Castile. These overseas territories of the Spanish Empire were under the jurisdiction of Crown of Castile until the last territory was lost in Spanish–American War, 1898. Spaniards saw the dense populations of indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous peoples as an important economic resource and the territory claimed as potentially producing great wealth for individual Spaniards and the crown. Religion played an important role in the Spanish conquest and incorporation of indigenous peoples, bringing them into the Catholic Church peacefully or by force. The crown created civil and religious structures to administer the vast territory. Spanish men and women settled in greatest numbers where there were dense indigenous populations ...
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Land Grant
A land grant is a gift of real estate—land or its use privileges—made by a government or other authority as an incentive, means of enabling works, or as a reward for services to an individual, especially in return for military service. Grants of land are also awarded to individuals and companies as incentives to develop unused land in relatively unpopulated countries; the process of awarding land grants are not limited to the countries named below. The United States historically gave out numerous land grants as homesteads to individuals desiring to make a farm. The American Industrial Revolution was guided by many supportive acts of legislatures (for example, the Main Line of Public Works legislation of 1863) promoting commerce or transportation infrastructure development by private companies, such as the Cumberland Road turnpike, the Lehigh Canal, the Schuylkill Canal and the many railroads that tied the young United States together. Ancient Rome Roman soldiers were giv ...
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Karankawa People
The Karankawa were an Indigenous people concentrated in southern Texas along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, largely in the lower Colorado River and Brazos River valleys."Karankawa." In ''Cassell's Peoples, Nations and Cultures,'' edited by John Mackenzie. Cassell, 2005. They consisted of several independent, seasonal nomadic groups who shared a language and some culture. From the onset of European colonization, the Karankawa had violent encounters with the Spanish. After one attack by the Spanish, who ambushed the Karankawa after the establishment of Presidio La Bahía in 1722, the Karankawa allegedly felt "deeply betrayed ndviewed Spanish colonial settlement with hostility." In the 1800s, European-American colonists arrived in their land under the leadership of Stephen Austin. He commissioned a captain to expel the Karankawa from the Austin land grant, leading to multiple attacks, including the Skull Creek massacre of 19 Karankawa. In 1824, Stephen F. Austin sent Capta ...
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Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge
Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge is the largest protected area of natural habitat left in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. The refuge is located almost entirely in Cameron County, Texas, east of Harlingen, although a very small part of its northernmost point extends into southern Willacy County. History The Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge was created following World War II in 1946 to protect habitat for migratory birds and waterfowl, specifically redhead ducks ('' Aythya americana''). By 2010, it had grown to encompass a total of in a landscape of "an interspersed pattern of meandering resacas (oxbow lakes), lomas (brush-covered sand/clay dunes), coastal prairies, and wetlands." In January 2024, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department announced a proposal to add to the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge via a swap of land currently owned by SpaceX, in order to allow SpaceX to become the owner of of Boca Chica State Park land to expand their exis ...
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Padre Island National Seashore
Padre Island National Seashore (PINS) is a national seashore administered by the National Park Service, located on Padre Island off the coast of South Texas, USA. In contrast to South Padre Island, Texas, South Padre Island, known for its beaches and vacationing college students, PINS is located on the north end of Padre Island and consists of a long beach where nature is preserved. Most of the park is primitive, but camping is available, and most of the beach is only accessible to four-wheel-drive vehicles. All but four miles is open to vehicle traffic. PAIS is the fourth designated national seashore in the United States.David Sikes of ''Corpus Christi Caller-Times'', "Padre Island seashore marks 50th", ''Laredo Morning Times'', December 3, 2012, p. 3A Padre Island is the longest undeveloped barrier island in the world. The national seashore is long with of Gulf beach. PAIS hosts a variety of pristine beach, dune, and tidal flat environments, including the Laguna Madre on it ...
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Brazos Island
Brazos Island, also known as Brazos Santiago Island, is a barrier island on the Gulf Coast of Texas in the United States, south of the town of South Padre Island. The island is located in Cameron County. Brazos Santiago Pass partitions the barrier islands of Brazos Island and Padre Island Padre Island is the largest of the Texas barrier islands and the world's longest barrier island. The island is located along Texas's southern coast of the Gulf of Mexico and is noted for its white sandy beaches. Meaning ''father'' in Spanish, ... in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. References * * "A Decade of Beneficial Use, Brazos Island Harbor, Dredging"by T. Neil McLellan, P.E., Herbie Maurer, P.E., Bob Fudge, P.E., and Dan J. Heilman, P.E. External links * {{authority control Barrier islands of Texas Landforms of Cameron County, Texas Parks in Texas Uninhabited islands of the United States ...
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Mustang Island
Mustang Island is a barrier island on the Gulf Coast of Texas in the United States. The island is 18 miles (29 km) long, stretching from Corpus Christi to Port Aransas. The island is oriented generally northeast–southwest, with the Gulf of Mexico on the east and south, and Corpus Christi Bay on the north and west. The island's southern end connects by roadway to Padre Island. At the northern end of the island is Port Aransas, beyond which is San José Island. The Aransas Channel, also known as the "Aransas Pass", which separates Mustang Island from San José Island, is protected by jetties extending into the Gulf from each island. The town of Port Aransas is located at the northern end of the island. Mustang Island State Park encompasses the entire southern third of the island, including 3,955 acres (1,600 ha) and 5 miles (8 km) of beach. The city of Corpus Christi includes the northernmost portion of Padre Island and part of Mustang Island between Por ...
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Corpus Christi, Texas
Corpus Christi ( ; ) is a Gulf Coast of the United States, coastal city in the South Texas region of the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat and largest city of Nueces County, Texas, Nueces County with portions extending into Aransas County, Texas, Aransas, Kleberg County, Texas, Kleberg, and San Patricio County, Texas, San Patricio counties. It is southeast of San Antonio and southwest of Houston. Its political boundaries encompass Nueces Bay and Corpus Christi Bay. Its zoned boundaries include small land parcels or water inlets of three neighboring counties. The city's population was 316,239 in 2022, making it the List of cities in Texas by population, eighth-most populous city in Texas. The Corpus Christi metropolitan area had an estimated population of 442,600. It is also the hub of the six-county Corpus Christi-Kingsville Combined Statistical Area, Corpus Christi-Kingsville combined statistical area, with a 2013 estimated population of 516,793. The Port of Corpus Christi ...
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National Geographic
''National Geographic'' (formerly ''The National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as ''Nat Geo'') is an American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. The magazine was founded in 1888 as a scholarly journal, nine months after the establishment of the society, but is now a popular magazine. In 1905, it began including pictures, a style for which it became well known. Its first color photos appeared in the 1910s. During the Cold War, the magazine committed itself to present a balanced view of the physical and human geography of countries beyond the Iron Curtain. Later, the magazine became outspoken on environmental issues. Until 2015, the magazine was completely owned and managed by the National Geographic Society. Since 2015, controlling interest has been held by National Geographic Partners. Topics of features generally concern geography, history, nature, science, and world culture. The magazine is well known for its distinctive appearance: a ...
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