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Our island home for the week was Padre Ballí County Park on the north end of Padre Island. Technically, it is North Padre Island since the government created the Mansfield Channel in 1962. The channel allows for boat passage but it cuts Padre Island into two pieces. The other half is the famous resort and Spring Break party area of South Padre Island but North Padre is home to the protected Padre Island National Seashore.

The county is really on to something with their beach parks. Just like at Port Aransas the RV spots are near the beach and the park includes shower and laundry facilities as well as a fishing pier replete with a casual restaurant and small convenience store. Of course, we had no trouble getting in since it is winter and the weather has been rainy and cool; but in the summer the place sells out fast.

The Park is named after Padre José Nicolás Ballí, a Spanish friar, who started a cattle ranch on the island around 1800. He received title to the island in a land-grant from Spain. It was the first permanent settlement and as a result the island was named after him. Since 1519 the island had been known as Isla Blanca by the Spanish because of its whitish sand. No one knows what the Karankawa Indians, the first people on the island, called their seasonal home.

Ballí’s ranching efforts were interrupted by the Mexican Revolution which started in 1810. Shortly before his death Ballí was able to convince the newly independent Mexican Government to recognize his land claim. Ballí’s descendants began selling sections by the 1830s. For over a decade the Island was a source of contention. In 1836 Texas declared independence from Mexico, in 1845 Texas was annexed by the U.S., but it wasn’t until the signing of the Treaty of Gaudalupe Hidalgo in 1848 that Padre Island officially became part of this country.

Just like we learned when visiting Mesilla, New Mexico, Mexico and the U.S. had very different ideas of their boundaries at the end of the Mexican-American War. One interesting note about Texas, when it was annexed by the U.S. Texas did not have to surrender any public lands to the federal government. Any federal land now in Texas was purchased by the government. This is significant when considering the amount of oil and natural gas production in Texas.

By 1926, the Dunn cattle ranch owned the majority of Padre Island but people began to think of other ways to exploit the island. Thankfully, interest in developing the island as a tourist attraction was dashed several times by huge storms. In 1962 Congress bought a large section of the middle of the island and established Padre Island National Seashore (PINS). PINS stretches from the shallow shelf in the Gulf, across the island out to the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway (GIC) in the Laguna Madre for about 65 miles which makes it the world’s largest undeveloped stretch of barrier island. Unfortunately, the government decided it was cost prohibitive to purchase the mineral rights to the island and that is creating quite a challenge for PINS.

Some of the mineral rights are privately held and some belong to the state of Texas but any of them can be (and some are) leased to natural gas companies for exploration and development. So PINS is a juxtaposition. It is a nesting site for the world’s most endangered sea turtle, the Kemp’s Ridley, and yet it also has well drilling operations and allows vehicle traffic on all of it’s beaches. PINS prohibits the use of metal detectors and removal of historic artifacts (as do all other National Parks) yet allows the collection of shells and other parts of nature (the only NP to do so). Clearly, an unusual yet special place.

We visited both sides of the Park, the beach on the Gulf side and the wetlands of the aptly named Laguna Madre (Spanish for Mother Lake). The Laguna is a hypersaline lake that is a nursery area for many species of birds and animals. The shallow lake averages 2.5’ deep. Until the GIC Waterway was dredged, animals and people could wade across the Laguna to the mainland. In fact, the ranchers used to round up their cattle on the island and herd them across the lake to get them to market.

The silt dredged from the GIC Waterway is piled in the Laguna and creates spoil banks the size of small islands. The islands are quickly “adopted” by various birds so the area is called Bird Island Basin. This area is the winter home of 80% of the U.S. population of Redhead Ducks among many other species.

Padre Island is quite a breezy place and the Laguna Madre is famous for kite surfing and windsurfing. We didn’t see anyone out while we were there but I can imagine it’s popular in the warmer months. We appreciated the wind because it kept the flying blood-suckers (mosquitoes) away.

We truly didn’t see too much action at the beach all week because the weather was just not cooperating. We admired the few hardy souls that came out with their metal detectors every day. They must have found fantastic treasures before or else they are real optimists. It is permissible to metal detect as long as you are outside the National Seashore.

Since it was a full moon we were treated to some very noisy high tides and extremely low ones. We found a few unique shells but overall, the beach was pretty bare. A highlight was a trip to the jetty. We braved the misting rain and stiff breeze and rode our bikes up there. Our journey was rewarded with a show by a pod of Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphins.

They were having a fine time jumping forwards, backwards and sideways in the water; they even seemed to appreciate our laughter and applause. It looked like pure joy out there. We pointed them out to another couple walking along the jetty and they were so thrilled. They said it made their good day into a perfect one. We knew exactly how they felt!

Our adventure along the Gulf Coast will come to an end in Port Isabel at the south end of the Laguna Madre. We’re excited by the thought of what’s around the bend…

Photos: View our photos from North Padre Island, Texas.

Notes: We stayed on Padre Island from 01/28/2007 to 02/04/2007.