Rockport Culture & Dining

Rockport is located about 25 miles up the coast from Corpus Christi. The Rockport Fulton Chamber of Commerce serves both Rockport and nearby Fulton. Rockport was founded by cattlemen J. M. and T. H. Mathis in 1867. Shipping and fishing provided the primary economic base of the town in its early years. The railroad arrived in 1888 and with it came a decline in the shipping industry, although shipyards were in operation during WWI and WWII. Their emphasis on the railroad has made Rockport more economically stable than the other coastal towns that depend upon the fishing and shipping industries that have declined in the last few decades. Rockport has been a popular recreation center over the years, and tourism continues to be important to the local economy.

Rockport is also fortunate to have a progressive city council that doesn't prevent change and new developments like Corpus Christi. They recently approved an Economic Development Study that focused on 17 areas of undeveloped property on the Rockport harbor front owned by the Bass family. It always helps to have a few billionaires involved in city development. The study determined the best use of the property is to construct a marina with high-density housing along with mixed-use structures, including retail.

Rockport Center for the Arts

The Art Center, located between the Rockport Harbor and Aransas Bay, is the center of Aransas County's art community. Invitational exhibits include original art, prints, pottery, stained glass and other art forms by local to internationally recognized artists. They also have a visual arts studio and pottery/sculpture studio for working artists, classes and workshops. For 40 years the Art Center has contributed to Rockport being ranked as one of the top 100 best small art towns in America. The Art Center does not allow photos to be taken inside.

Atmar Atkinson sculpture

Atmar Atkinson was a well-known architect who owned an architectural firm in Lubbock. His work included designing buildings at Texas Tech University and for Southwestern Bell Telephone and Methodist Hospital. He also designed the George Mahon Federal Building in Lubbock and many schools and churches throughout Texas. He retired to Rockport in 1983, where he became an active member of the art community. He was famous for saying this about designing churches: "It's about the only job left where an architect can win a set of dishes." He was commenting on the sorry state into which the design professions had sunk under the burden of codes and criteria imposed on them.

Rockport has a large number of art galleries and upscale craft shops

Texas Maritime Museum

The Texas Maritime Museum houses a variety of exhibits that strive to tell a complete story of Texas' maritime history. They include exhibits in the areas of commercial and sports fishing, lighthouses of Texas, oil and gas exploration in Texas Coast and Gulf waters and the first exhibit of The La Salle Odyssey. The La Salle Odyssey tells the story of Robert La Salle's French expedition and failed colonization of Texas in 1684. The highlight of the exhibit is a 1:12 scale model of La Salle's flagship La Belle. The La Salle Odyssey is a coalition of eight institutions and seven museums located in six counties. The La Salle expedition is so large a chronical that each museum will only tell a portion of the larger story.

Another view of the Texas Maritime Museum

Views from the Texas Maritime Museum observation deck

The Texas Master Gardener program is an educational activity conducted by the Texas AgriLife Extension Service of the Texas A&M University System. The program is designed to increase the availability of horticultural information and extend horticultural projects throughout the community. These goals are implemented through the training and use of local volunteers known as Master Gardeners. The Texas Master Gardner program is the largest in the nation. BTW: The yellow bush is an Experanza. Sometimes it is called Yellow Bells or Hardy Yellow Trumpet. It is a favorite landscape plant throughout South Texas because it is very drought tolerant.

Century Plant

Spirit Columns

This world class sculpture was created by Jesus Bautista Moroles, internationally acclaimed granite sculptor, whose works originate from his studio in Rockport. His sculptures appear in museums, galleries, private collections and public areas across the globe.

Dining

The Diner in Rockport is a local favorite restaurant that I liked. Down home southern cooking plus a few seafood and Tex-Mex entrees. Very crowded because they have good cheap lunch specials every day.

Paradise Key Island Grill located at the Marina on Key Allegro in Rockport is my favorite seafood restaurant so far. Finally some decent crab cakes. You know it's a serious seafood restaurant when they have a sign saying you can bring your own fish and they will clean and cook it for you. For lunch I had a shrimp & crab cake with remoulade sauce and a spinach salad.

Big Fisherman Restaurant is between Aransas Pass and Rockport. It's the tourist and RV crowd favorite. HUGE crowds and HUGE meals. For lunch I ordered their mini seafood platter. It included stuffed crab, stuffed shrimp, fried shrimp and lots of fish. I took enough back to the motel for another large meal. The seafood was okay but not as good as the Paradise Key.

Rockport Houses & Housing Developments

This housing development failed because it was started about the time the bottom fell out of the housing market.

This is an example of the many expensive homes in Rockport.

Fulton Mansion

George W. Fulton was born in Philadelphia, served in the Texas Army in 1836 and became a pioneer resident of Refugio County. He left Texas and had an engineering career of distinction elsewhere. Later he returned to Texas and became a cattle baron. He and his wife, Harriet Smith Fulton, built this imposing residence between 1874 and 1877. The three-story French Second Empire style home featured modern heating, ventilation and plumbing systems and gas lighting. The nearby town of Fulton bears his name.

Mansion view of bay

Live oak trees near the water are permanently leaning due to the prevailing winds of the southeast.

This is the most luxurious apartment complex in Rockport. It is about 8 minutes outside Rockport in a fast growing suburb. Like my luxury Fairfax apartment it is a new, gated, well landscaped apartment complex. Only difference is I was paying over $2000 per month for my top floor one bedroom apartment. An equal top floor one bedroom apartment overlooking a golf course in this complex costs $705 per month.

Rockport Beaches, Parks & Harbors

Rockport Beach Park is Texas' only Blue Wave Beach. The Blue Wave campaign is America's first environmental certification for beaches. The goal of Blue Wave is to promote public awareness and voluntary participation in maintaining clean and healthy beaches.

Rockport Harbor Whooping Crane sculpture

The Goose Island Oak is usually referred to as the "The Big Tree". The Big Tree is a giant live oak more than 35 feet in circumference, 44 feet in height and has a crown spread of 89 feet. The Texas Forest Service estimates the tree to be over 1,000 years old. It is said to have been a council tree for the Carancahua Indians and for the white men who came after them. The Big Tree is located in Goose Island State Park.

Aransas Pass Photos

New Community Center

Fire Department

Aransas Pass Community Park & Aquatic Center

Community Park at Ransom Channel

Aransas Pass Conn Brown Harbor

Conn Brown Harbor Park

Memorial Tower in Memory of Fishermen Lost at Sea

Yacht at Conn Brown Harbor

Shrimp Boat Coming Into Harbor

Harbor Cafe & Bait Shop

Abandoned Dock Buildings

Formerly JBS Shrimp Co

This is just one of many closed Conn Brown Harbor Buildings that housed shrimp and fish processing companies and associated support companies.

The oil industry continues to be a significant part of the South Texas economy. For example, there are four oil refineries located in Corpus Christi and Corpus Christi alone continues to produce over .5 million barrels of oil each year.

Aransas Pass – A Closer Look

As I stated in my earlier post, this is the most economically depressed coastal town I have visited. After studying the town history I realized that Aransas Pass has every reason to be depressed, economically and otherwise. Dating back to 1853 their dream was to make Aransas Pass harbor a major deepwater port for the lower Gulf coast. For various reasons ranging from financial panics to hurricanes, the dream was only partially fulfilled. The harbor channel was eventually deepened and widened and oceangoing vessels began to use the port in the early 1900s. Then successive hurricanes in 1916 and 1919 did major damage to Aransas Pass and harbor shipping facilities and in 1920 the Corps of Engineers selected Corpus Christi to be the primary deepwater port for the lower Gulf coast. Aransas Pass harbor continued as an oil terminal but for all practical purposes no further cargo shipments were made in and out of the harbor. So Aransas Pass lost out to Corpus Christi in a fashion very much like the Galveston port lost out to the Houston port after the great 1900 hurricane. Steady growth of shrimping and fishing fleets operating out of Aransas Pass helped the town recover. At one time the shrimping fleet was the largest on the Gulf coast with over 300 shrimp boats. Allied industries grew up around the port and city to support the fishing and shrimping industries. But once again long term economic success eluded the town. Competition from foreign fishermen and domestic fish and shrimp farms has led to a slow decline in the economic condition of Aransas Pass.

Regardless of all of this, Aransas Pass is a little town of 8000 that keeps trying. They attract larger numbers of boaters and fishermen and they continue to provide numerous community parks, beaches, free fishing piers and public boat ramps. I was also surprised to find that they have a large 24/7 fitness center and an Art, Music & Live Theater that provides an art gallery, acoustic music jams, classic movies, live theater and yoga classes.

Will provide Aransas Pass and Rockport photos later after I move on to Victoria, TX. High speed Internet is very bad in this area, making it impossible to upload photos onto my blog.