Coastal Town Lore

[Man]

Thanks for the reply's guys...think I got some good leads in these 2 pages!

[Mayhem]

I know/knew some of the family pretty well. A couple of them I knew have passed on.

Somehow my dad made friends with the guy who’s family has ran the cattle of the ranch for years.

He also know the guy who put a new roof on the house some years back. Other than that I don’t know anyone who are ever actually gone in the house. Have you Glenn??


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[Capt Glenn]

I probably know some folks who have been there. I bet my brothers have been there, they use to run around with a boy who was a family member and they use to hunt and fish down there on the ranch some years ago. I'll have to ask them about it. I'm sure others have too. It's just not really something I have ever asked about. I know where the house is and I see it when I fish up there some, which is rare. It looks pretty cool.

[Quackerbox]

When I was a kid we had planes get ditched on the beach pretty regularly. Some fairly good sized ones even. There was a pretty good sized twin prop that was landed and was ditched on the beach back in the 80's that they drug up to the mouth of the river and set outside the Cracker Box where it sat for a long time.

Im not that old But I think thats the same plane.

It wasnt far off the road and was a twin engine

[rvd]

For those who haven’t watched it give this Amazon Prime documentary a spin-

“Broken Waves Origins of a Texas Surf Cult”

It’s 1h13m long and worth the watch imo.


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I watched it last night, pretty cool documentary. Those guys were/are some real characters.

[S-3 Ranch]

Same here and now I want a metal detector to see what they are keeping secret. Lol

In 1941 while placing the jetty in port Mansfield, they dredged up
A Spanish shipwreck, sometimes people find Spanish gold
Ownership is questionable, finder, state , federal, Spanish government, therefore medal detection isn’t allowed

[Man]

In 1941 while placing the jetty in port Mansfield, they dredged up
A Spanish shipwreck, sometimes people find Spanish gold
Ownership is questionable, finder, state , federal, Spanish government, therefore medal detection isn’t allowed

Just need to conceal with some pants and I am in business.

[Cberry]

Not super historical, but Stewart Campbell's house is off the intercoastal between Seadrift and POC. Hall of fame fisherman and boat designer. Also the guy pulled out of a boat by a marlin.

https://youtu.be/R0YOf5vCB74

https://youtu.be/clJQCBCoV7E

[rvd]

Not super historical, but Stewart Campbell's house is off the intercoastal between Seadrift and POC. Hall of fame fisherman and boat designer. Also the guy pulled out of a boat by a marlin.

https://youtu.be/R0YOf5vCB74

https://youtu.be/clJQCBCoV7E

And he was as passionate about fishing and boats as a man could be. I met him in the late 90’s in poc, we talked boats for about 5 minutes while buying boat parts. I knew who he was prior to meeting him. Saw him a couple years later and he recognized me and initiated a conversation. I thought that was pretty cool and made me feel good.

[Cberry]

And he was as passionate about fishing and boats as a man could be. I met him in the late 90’s in poc, we talked boats for about 5 minutes while buying boat parts. I knew who he was prior to meeting him. Saw him a couple years later and he recognized me and initiated a conversation. I thought that was pretty cool and made me feel good.

Nice, thats good to hear! I never met him, I've just rode past his ranch several times as a kid when we fished down there. Really cool place.

[Capt Glenn]

Im not that old But I think thats the same plane.

It wasnt far off the road and was a twin engine

That was back when the road ran straight into the beach and you crossed a cattle guard to get on the beach. The Cracker Box was a little beach burger joint/watering hole right off the beach. The plane sat there at the Cracker Box between it and the road just north of the cattle guard you crossed to get on the beach.

Our fishing camp was right there by the Cracker Box. My brothers and I would go crawl thru that plane regularly for the time it was there. The word was that whoever owned the Cracker box was going to turn it into a dining area where you could eat inside the plane but it honestly wasn't big enough for that. Or maybe it was that they were going to put a bar in there. I can't remember. It wasn't big enough for that either.

[Capt Glenn]

Thanks for the reply's guys...think I got some good leads in these 2 pages!

I'll tell you another good story. We use to have a system of aerial blimps that had radars in them to monitor for low flying aircraft. They were on a long tether and they would raise them up way up in the sky on the tether. There was one every so far along our southern border and Matagorda had one of them.

They pulled them down from time to time for maintenance and they might be grounded several days or a couple of weeks.

One weekend we were heading over to 'the island' aka the Matagorda Peninsula for a weekend of fishing the bay and surf. We had about 3 or 4 boatloads of guys going and we were staying at the Hilton Club which is a private fishing club that has a house at the old army airbase on the peninsula. In those days there were a few houses over there but nothing like there is now. Well, as I got to Matagorda I noticed they were pulling the blimp down for maintenance. That evening we were sitting outside just after dark drinking a toddy and listening to the old men tell the same stories we'd heard them tell every trip to the island for years and years. But it never really gets old. And off in the distance you could hear this deep, deep droning of a big multiple prop plane. I'm talking a BIG plane. They came in low off the gulf, circled right over us very low and they sat it down on the big runway just SW of us. No lights. None that I saw anyway. Maybe they had some on the ground, IDK. All I know is there was no way any of us were gonna go poking around. We just sat in camp and continued with what we were doing thinking if we don't go mess with them, they won't come mess with us.

That plane sat on the runway idling a long time. Maybe a couple of hours. Then it's motors wound up and it took back off and flew low out over the gulf headed south. All that night there was a steady stream of small planes coming in from Houston, landing, taking off and heading back toward Houston. I'm not talking 5 or 6 planes, I am talking dozens of planes all night long. They must have hauled in literally tons of coke that night.

[curtintex]

The old blimp hangar in Hitchcock.

http://www.texas-flyer.com/chambers/landmark.htm

[Quackerbox]

I'll tell you another good story. We use to have a system of aerial blimps that had radars in them to monitor for low flying aircraft. They were on a long tether and they would raise them up way up in the sky on the tether. There was one every so far along our southern border and Matagorda had one of them.



They pulled them down from time to time for maintenance and they might be grounded several days or a couple of weeks.



One weekend we were heading over to 'the island' aka the Matagorda Peninsula for a weekend of fishing the bay and surf. We had about 3 or 4 boatloads of guys going and we were staying at the Hilton Club which is a private fishing club that has a house at the old army airbase on the peninsula. In those days there were a few houses over there but nothing like there is now. Well, as I got to Matagorda I noticed they were pulling the blimp down for maintenance. That evening we were sitting outside just after dark drinking a toddy and listening to the old men tell the same stories we'd heard them tell every trip to the island for years and years. But it never really gets old. And off in the distance you could hear this deep, deep droning of a big multiple prop plane. I'm talking a BIG plane. They came in low off the gulf, circled right over us very low and they sat it down on the big runway just SW of us. No lights. None that I saw anyway. Maybe they had some on the ground, IDK. All I know is there was no way any of us were gonna go poking around. We just sat in camp and continued with what we were doing thinking if we don't go mess with them, they won't come mess with us.



That plane sat on the runway idling a long time. Maybe a couple of hours. Then it's motors wound up and it took back off and flew low out over the gulf headed south. All that night there was a steady stream of small planes coming in from Houston, landing, taking off and heading back toward Houston. I'm not talking 5 or 6 planes, I am talking dozens of planes all night long. They must have hauled in literally tons of coke that night.

****!!!

I remember the blimp well. It seems we was told it was for the "weather" but the place had a high fence and an office without a single window.

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[S-3 Ranch]

I'll tell you another good story. We use to have a system of aerial blimps that had radars in them to monitor for low flying aircraft. They were on a long tether and they would raise them up way up in the sky on the tether. There was one every so far along our southern border and Matagorda had one of them.

They pulled them down from time to time for maintenance and they might be grounded several days or a couple of weeks.

One weekend we were heading over to 'the island' aka the Matagorda Peninsula for a weekend of fishing the bay and surf. We had about 3 or 4 boatloads of guys going and we were staying at the Hilton Club which is a private fishing club that has a house at the old army airbase on the peninsula. In those days there were a few houses over there but nothing like there is now. Well, as I got to Matagorda I noticed they were pulling the blimp down for maintenance. That evening we were sitting outside just after dark drinking a toddy and listening to the old men tell the same stories we'd heard them tell every trip to the island for years and years. But it never really gets old. And off in the distance you could hear this deep, deep droning of a big multiple prop plane. I'm talking a BIG plane. They came in low off the gulf, circled right over us very low and they sat it down on the big runway just SW of us. No lights. None that I saw anyway. Maybe they had some on the ground, IDK. All I know is there was no way any of us were gonna go poking around. We just sat in camp and continued with what we were doing thinking if we don't go mess with them, they won't come mess with us.

That plane sat on the runway idling a long time. Maybe a couple of hours. Then it's motors wound up and it took back off and flew low out over the gulf headed south. All that night there was a steady stream of small planes coming in from Houston, landing, taking off and heading back toward Houston. I'm not talking 5 or 6 planes, I am talking dozens of planes all night long. They must have hauled in literally tons of coke that night.

When I was in high school, one of my dad’s buddies had a shack out on the peninsula and asked me if I wanted to fly out with him and check on the house which his son was staying in while we were in town, we flew over and walked in to the house , and his son was
Sitting in a reclining chair with a bowl of cereal in his lap and a Syringe in his arm dead as a hammer from a OD
Sorry no lore but you triggered up a memory about that place