HISTORY CORNER - Port Aransas South Jetty

I have, with less success than I care to admit, chased fish for a long time on our inland waters. Boating from one fishing spot to the next, I would occasionally see old structures. Some I entered on my fishing chart as notated waypoints: “2 dollar hole is southwest of bayou dock.”

When I began studying Port Aransas history, these old “water” structures took on new meaning: they became physical manifestations of what I was reading. It is rewarding to read a piece of history at 10 a.m., launch the boat, and at noon photograph an artifact of that history. In this article I take you on a history water tour that I discovered. It pertains to a two-branch railroad that was historically important to our town.

The Aransas Harbor Terminal Railroad was chartered in 1892. The AHTRR was crucial to the building of the jetties. The rails were laid on trestles across Redfish Bay. The line terminated near the Corpus Christi Bayou at bayou dock (see map). When flatcars bearing the jetty rocks arrived at this dock, they were rolled onto barges fitted with rails. The barges were then pushed to receiving docks on Mustang and San José islands. From there, the rock cars were rolled onto trestled tracks extending into the Gulf, from whence the rocks were dumped into the water.

Branches of the Aransas Harbor Terminal Railroad. The first branch was crucial to building the jetties. The other branch served a seaport made possible by the jetties.

The image is a current photograph of the pilings that supported bayou dock. These 118 year-old structures have seen 14 hurricanes and untold storms. (Bayou dock was abandoned in 1917.)

Starting point Pilings of Bayou Dock, terminus of the 1892-1917 branch of the AHTRR. It was from this dock that rocks were barged to jetty work sites.

The AHTRR had a second branch. Plans were laid in the early 20th century for a seaport on Harbor Island, right across from Port Aransas. Freight— initially cotton, later oil—would go from the mainland to the Harbor Island seaport by water and rail; and in 1912, cars of the AHTRR were carrying the cotton product to the new seaport. (A year earlier the maritime Aransas Channel had opened.)

Abandoned trestles Trestles of the 1912-1947 branch of the AHTRR than ran from Aransas Pass to Harbor Island. State Hwy. 361 is in the background. This branch closed in 1947.

The Harbor Island branch of the AHTRR was laid on trestles from Aransas Pass to the island (SH 361 parallels this route). The image is a current photograph of these 98 year-old trestles.

The Harbor Island and Bayou Dock branches of the Aransas Harbor Terminal Railroad were distinguished by the latter being referred to as the Old Terminal railroad.

[ Editor ’ s note: Port Aransas History Corner is a monthly feature compiled primarily by historian Dr. John Guthrie Ford. Ford, a charter member of, and consultant to, the Port Aransas Preservation and Historical Association, is the author of A Texas Island, available at various retail outlets in Port Aransas.]