Hello,

I am looking for book recommendations specifically about the TX Gulf Coast. Primarily related to Galveston, Matagorda, Indianola etc. On my second read of Fehrenbach's Lone Star and am interested in any books that focus on this area.

Thank you!

Not just Texas, although published by Texas A&M press, but I can highly recommend Robert Weddle's three volume history of the Spanish in the Gulf of Mexico:

1. The Spanish Sea, 1500-1685
2. The French Thorn, 1682-1762
3. Changing Tides 1763-1803

My 8X GGF plays a prominent role in volume 2..

Thank you all!

My wife's uncle had a book called Karankawa Coast. The subject is obvious, but I never read it so I don't know if it is good or not. There are a few others he had about the Texas coast, but I don't remember them off the top of my head. I'll see if I can get a line on them for you sometime soon.

There is also a documentary from the History Channel. Google "Isaac Cline documentary".

Last time I watched it was on YouTube.

I am very interested in this

Yordaddy,
Sorry for the late reply, but I had to contact the person that inherited her Uncle's books. He looked around and could not find it. We had a discussion on the title of the book; he thinks it may have been called The Karankawa Coast. I looked on line and found some links to a book that I think may have been the one I was thinking of. It is by Edward W. Kilman, and originally published in 1959. Here's a link to the book on the Internet Archive, Open Library:
Cannibal Coast link
Unfortunately, it appears the book isn't available there.

Here is a picture from Pinterest of the cover. It isn't what I remember though. i thought the book was white with gold figures similar to the color version shown here. This may be the dust cover of the book and not the actual book itself.




The following is a list of books they could find, along with the author, copyright or published date and publisher. Where available, he included the price of the book with the rest of the information. I hope you can find some of them, at least on line. The last book is one my wife bought as we were going to Rockport quite a bit in those days and some of them were in Rockport.

Pamphlets


The Crabs of Texas, by Sandra Pounds Leary, with illustrations
Bulletin No. 13, Series VII, Coastal Fisheries, 1961/Revised 1964/Printed 1967
Published by Texas Parks and Wildlife Department

Taming The Texas Coast, by Vernon Smylie
First revised edition, Copyrights 1965
Published by Texas News Syndicate ($1.00)

The Secrets of Padre Island, An Informal History of America's Most Fascinating Island (From 1845 to Present), by Vernon Smylie
First printing, Copyright 1964
Published by Texas News Syndicate ($1.00)

Conquistadores and Cannibals, The Early History of Padre Island (1519-1845), by Vernon Smylie
First printing, Copyright 1964
Published by Texas News Syndicate ($1.00)

This is Padre Island, Land of Fantasy, Fun Treasure and Adventure, by Vernon Smylie
First printing, Copyright 1964
Published by Texas News Syndicate ($1.00)

The Padre Island Story, by Loraine Daly and Pat Reumert
Copyright 1962
The Naylor Company


Books (hardbacks)

Fishing Yesterday's Gulf Coast, by Legendary Guide Barney Farley
Number Three, Gulf Coast Studies, Sponsored by Texas A&M University Corpus Christi
Copyright 2002
Texas A&M University Press

Fishing Yesterday's Gulf Coast, by Legendary Guide Barney Farley
Number Three, Gulf Coast Studies, Sponsored by Texas A&M University Corpus Christi
Copyright 2002
Texas A&M University Press
The Stubborn Fisherman, by Elda May Roberts
Copyright 1970
The Altus Printing Company ($6.95)

Padre Island, Treasure Kingdom of the World, by William Mahan
Copyright 1967
Texian Press ($6.95)

Hurricane Junction, A History of Port Aransas, by Cyril Matthew Kuehne
Copyright 1973
St. Mary's University

Added book (not from the Uncle's library)
Ghosts Along the Texas Coast, by Docia Schultz Williams
Copyright 1995
Republic of Texas Press ($12.95)

Good luck with your search for books.

Here's one called 'Plugger' I read years ago.

https://www.amazon.com/Plugger-Wade-Fishing-Gulf-Coast/dp/0896725103

I remember it making me wish I had a time traveling machine.

Quote:

---

From a pioneer in catch-and-release and a legend in saltwater wade-fishing. Rudy Grigar, one of America's most notorious characters of saltwater wade-fishing, lends the inimitable voice of experience to these yester yarns of the coastal waters of Texas and Louisiana.

---

All are available on Amazon...

Battle on the Bay: The Civil War Struggle for Galveston (Texas Classics) Paperback March 1, 1998
by Edward T. Cotham Jr. (Author)

Sabine Pass: The Confederacy's Thermopylae (Clifton and Shirley Caldwell Texas Heritage Series) Paperback Illustrated, October 1, 2004
by Edward T. Cotham Jr. (Author)

Indianola: The Mother of Western Texas Hardcover September 1, 1990
by Brownson Malsch (Author)

I have a copy of Plugger, awesome read. Those times are long gone!

If you can find either of these two, they are very interesting and a good view into things around the mid to lower Texas coast. My great grandmother wrote these about my great, great grandfather and her childhood experiences growing up in the Rockport area.

https://www.amazon.com/Sea-Was-His-Mistress/dp/B0007EGTWW

https://www.amazon.com/Old-Beach-Road-Winifred-Lowther/product-reviews/0811104990?reviewerType=all_reviews

Just finishing "Issacs Storm". Does the Roker book simply cover the same ground, or is it different enough to justify reading it, too?

I've read both. There is some overlap, but imo Roker's is much better. Cline is a part of Roker's book, as are several other Galvestonians from different levels of society.

Port of Drifting Men by Leonard King if you like Port Isabel. Fascinating read

Lord Goldeneyes said:

---

Here's one called 'Plugger' I read years ago.

https://www.amazon.com/Plugger-Wade-Fishing-Gulf-Coast/dp/0896725103

I remember it making me wish I had a time traveling machine.

Quote:

---

From a pioneer in catch-and-release and a legend in saltwater wade-fishing. Rudy Grigar, one of America's most notorious characters of saltwater wade-fishing, lends the inimitable voice of experience to these yester yarns of the coastal waters of Texas and Louisiana.

---

---

I read that book, and though Rudy was around prior to my time, there was at least a little overlap. I would have started fishing the Gulf and bays around 1959, but not wade fishing until '63 or '64. There were a lot of fish back then, though I don't recall the limits or whether we adhered to them. Not everyone was catching limits every day, but those who knew how to fish generally did. We used to watch the Mexican seiners, pull in thousands of fish two or three late afternoons/early evenings each week. The seines were immense, a dozen to eighteen guys pulled them back on shore, the final acre or so of water just boiling with fish. They could gill and gut a fish and put in a refrigerated truck faster than I typed this sentence. Never once saw a game warden.

Unlike Rudy, we used live shrimp, generally we used them rigged for what we called "free shrimping" or under a popping cork. A quart of shrimp cost $2.04 back then, and the bait camp generally gave you an additional half-pint to a pint more than the quart. Decades later, you would not get a single shrimp more than the quart, lol. Shrimp back then seemed to survive much longer in the bait bucket, whereas they died pretty quickly in later years.

My junior high years and all but my senior year in high school, I spent most of the summer on Bolivar Peninsula, a couple of blocks from the North Jetty. The neighbors on one side were a couple of mystery men, in that they didn't fish with shrimp or live bait. They fished with spoons, likely Johnson Sprites. They were friendly old guys, my uncle and father compared notes with them on fishing success most days, where they waded, where we waded, the catch, etc. I never bothered to learn to use spoons or artificials back then, but that is all that I use now.

It was a great time, plenty of fish, not a lot of people along the coast. Since my stay was most of three months each summer, you would often run into people down for a week or two vacation each summer. Even better when it included a girl you had met the prior summer or two and then, sadly, never saw again.