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I n 1519, Spanish explor- the Island itself would
er Alonso Alvarez de
remain largely uninhabited.
Pineda was on a map-
Seventy years later, Captain Ben
ping mission for the King
of Spain when he dis- McCulloch, led a company of
Texas Rangers down the Padre’s
covered the Brazos Santiago Island (as it was now called) from
Pass. He described treacherous Corpus Christi at the onset of
sandbars and a shoreline littered the Mexican War. “The island
with spars and rigging from ships is uninhabited save by one old
that had wrecked many years man,” McCulloch reported, “who
before. Pineda also made contact follows the business of a wrecker,
with numerous groups of Indians and lives not far from Point Isabel,
(Coahuiltecans) living near the in a wild-looking place, which
mouth of the Rio Grande. These he calls, after himself, Tilley’s
same Indians gained notoriety Camp. Uncle Tilley lives there,
when in 1554 three ships, part and employs himself in gather-
of a treasure fleet outbound for ing the wrecks of cargoes with
Spain, wrecked along the shores which the beach is strewn,
of Padre Island. Over three hun- seeming perfectly happy in his
dred people survived only to loneliness, the undisputed lord
be hunted down and killed by of this desert isle.” Tilley became
local Indians while trying to walk famous throughout the nation
southward for safety. Only two as, the “Hermit of Padre Island.”
survived to tell the story. Shortly after he died his obituary
Lamenting the loss of human was published in hundreds of
life, the pragmatic Spaniards sent eastern newspapers.
ships and men who managed to Fifteen years later the sands of
salvage over 40% of the treasure Padre Island once again felt the
that the three ships carried. The tread of marching men, except
rest lay buried beneath the sands this time it was not the soldiers
of Padre Island. It was the redis- of one country bent on wresting
covery and excavation of one the land from another. Instead, it
of these ships by local treasure was the tread of fellow country-
hunters in 1967 that led to the men determined to maintain
institution of the Texas State a union. Though most of the
Antiquity Laws which covers all battles of that war were fought
publicly owned property in the in far-away places, the depot at
State of Texas. This jurisdiction Brazos Santiago was home to the
also extends ten and 3⁄4 miles Northern Soldiers who sallied
into the Gulf of Mexico. forth one rainy May night in
In 1749, Jose Escandon 1865 in an effort to capture
led an expedition of 600 men some Rebel positions westward
to explore the Rio Grande towards Brownsville. Though
Valley. He reported a few scat- boys in blue had superior num-
tered huts and the occasional bers, the Confederates under the
shell midden as the only tan- command of Rip Ford, carried
gible evidence of man’s presence the day and the last battle of
on the coast. Farther inland, he the Civil War was won by the
came upon many different tribes Southerners. Several hundred
of Indians. Escandon’s report led Union troopers were captured
to the successful colonization of with 120 wounded and one
the Lower Rio Grande Valley in killed outright. Unfortunately
1751. for the victorious rebels, the war
Twenty years later, a mil- had actually ended five weeks
itary patrol found an abandoned prior. The Battle of Palmetto
village of mud huts near the Ranch, as it became known, was
southern tip of the Island. Also the last official battle of the Civil
found, just across Brazos Pass, War. To visit the battle site drive
were skeletal remains of a twenty west from Port Isabel on State
gun British warship long ago Highway 48. Turn south on FM
abandoned. 511 at the Port of Brownsville
Except for the yearly and drive south until the road
migration of local Indians, intersects with State Highway 4.
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