The Vanished Texas Coast

People may associate Texas with cattle drives and oil derricks, but the sea has shaped the state's history as dramatically as it has delineated its coastline. Some of that history has vanished into the Gulf, whether it is an abandoned port town or a gale-tossed treasure fleet. Revisit the shipwreck that put Texas on the map. Add La Salle's lost colony, the Texas Navy's forgotten steamship and Galveston's overlooked 1915 hurricane to the navigational charts. From the submarines of Seawolf Park to the concrete tanker beached off Pelican Island, author Mark Lardas scours the coast to salvage the secrets of its sunken heritage.

People may associate Texas with cattle drives and oil derricks, but the sea has shaped the state's history as dramatically as it has delineated its coastline. Some of that history has vanished into the Gulf, whether it is an abandoned port town or a gale-tossed treasure fleet. Revisit the shipwreck that put Texas on the map. Add La Salle's lost colony, the Texas Navy's forgotten steamship and Galveston's overlooked 1915 hurricane to the navigational charts. From the submarines of Seawolf Park to the concrete tanker beached off Pelican Island, author Mark Lardas scours the coast to salvage the secrets of its sunken heritage.

Track pirate gold and misplaced riches across 168 counties in this comprehensive guide to the lost treasures of Texas. Countless fortunes have disappeared into the vast expanse of the Lone Star State. The history of the coast is cluttered with shipwrecks like that of the 1554 Spanish fleet. Even when pirates such as Jean Laffite managed to get their ill-gotten gains ashore, their loot vanished just as completely as if it had sunk beneath the waves. Entire mines, including the ventures of Jim Bowie and San Saba Presidio, have been reclaimed by the earth. The unmarked caches of bandits like Jesse James and Pancho Villa still bedevil the dreams of treasure seekers today. W. Craig Gaines reveals what has been lost, what has been found and what remains to be recovered.

The Texas coastline and offshore waters are flat, shallow, featureless, and filled with shoals. Texas waters are subjected to extreme weather, not just hurricanes and tropical storms but also northers and seasonal gales. This, combined with two centuries of naval warfare off Texas waters, produced many shipwrecks of all sorts, from Spanish treasure fleets to simple working boats. The ships of pirates, navies, cotton traders, immigrants, fishermen, and oil shippers line the Texas coast, cover the sea bottom off Texas, and blanket the bottom of Texas rivers. Each wreck has a story, romantic or repellent, prosaic or unusual, but all intriguing.

The middle Texas coast, known locally as the Coast Bend, is an area filled with fascinating stories. From as early as the days of de Vaca and La Salle, the Coastal Bend has been a site of early exploration, bloody conflicts, legendary shipwrecks and even a buried treasure or two. However, much of the true history has remained unknown, misunderstood and even hidden. For years, local historian C. Herndon Williams has shared his fascinating discoveries of the area's early stories through his weekly column, "Coastal Bend Chronicle." Now he has selected some of his favorites in Texas Gulf Coast Stories. Join Williams as he explores the days of early settlement and European contact, Karankawa and Tonkawa legends and the Coastal Bend's tallest of tall tales.

Solomon Mangham was born in about 1755 in North Carolina. His parents were William Mangham, Sr. and Mary Persons. He married Sarah Ann Bennett. They had seven children and lived near Gilkey's Creek, South Carolina. In about 1790 they moved to Wilkes County, Georgia. Thirty-seven of their Mangham descendants fought in the Confederate Army. Descendants and relatives lived mainly in Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Louisiana and Texas.

A personal portrait of a young American girl's rural childhood - including reminiscences of the Civil War and pioneering in the West. Renewed interest in wilderness, rural farm life, and the experiences of pioneer women has prompted the reissue of this work.

“The story of the ships, mariners, and ports that formed a vital connection between Texas and the rest of the world . . . [A] ‘first-stop’ reference.” —The Journal of American History Second Place, Presidio La Bahia Award, Sons of the Republic of Texas The Gulf Coast has been a principal place of entry into Texas ever since Alonso Alvarez de Pineda explored these shores in 1519. Yet, nearly five hundred years later, the maritime history of Texas remains largely untold. In this book, Richard V. Francaviglia offers a comprehensive overview of Texas’ merchant and military marine history, drawn from his own extensive collection of maritime history materials, as well as from research in libraries and museums around the country. Based on recent discoveries in nautical archaeology, Francaviglia tells the stories of the Spanish flotilla that wrecked off Padre Island in 1554 and of La Salle’s flagship Belle, which sank in 1687. He explores the role of the Texas Navy in the Texas Revolution of 1835–1836 and during the years of the Texas Republic and also describes the Civil War battles at Galveston and Sabine Pass. Finally, he recounts major developments of the nineteenth century, concluding with the disastrous Galveston Hurricane in 1900. More than one hundred illustrations, many never before published, complement the text. “Although there have been many excellent and valuable books published previously on specific topics in Texas’ maritime development (e.g. the Texas Navy, river trade, the Civil War, etc.), we have been waiting a long time for a single volume that ties all those loose threads together into a single, cohesive whole.” —Andrew W. Hall, specialist in Texas marine history and archaeology