Aransas County
Rockport, Aransas County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Created out of the coastal portion of Refugio County in 1871, Aransas County is the second smallest county in Texas. Within its boundaries are three bays of the Gulf of Mexico: Copano, St. Charles, and Aransas. The area was the site of early Indian inhabitation and Spanish exploration, as well as Anglo colonization efforts of the 1830s and 1840s. Aransas County communities are supported by such industries as fishing, agriculture, off-shore oil production, bird watching, and tourism. The county is home to the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, created in 1937. (1990)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Carved from the coastal edge of Refugio County in 1871, Aransas County is the second smallest in Texas, yet it embraces three Gulf bays—Copano, St. Charles, and Aransas. The area had known Indian habitation, Spanish exploration, and Anglo colonization long before the county formed, and it later drew its living from fishing, farming, offshore oil, and tourism. In 1937 it became home to the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge.
Why it matters
The county's layered past—from Native peoples and Spanish explorers to modern fishing fleets and wildlife refuges—captures the long human story of the Texas Gulf Coast.
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Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
St. Peter's Episcopal Church
Rockport, TX
Bishop Alexander Gregg dedicated St. Peter's Episcopal Church in the young Gulf port of Rockport on November 30, 1871. Its first home sat beside the railroad depot, where services were sometimes drowned out by arriving trains. Moved to this site in 1954, the parish became self-sustaining a decade later and still serves the community.
First Presbyterian Church of Rockport
Rockport, TX
Tracing its roots to 1869, this Gulf Coast congregation was deactivated in 1879 but reorganized with twenty charter members in 1889, worshiping in borrowed facilities until completing its own building around 1906–07. After surviving repeated hurricanes, the church relocated to this site in 1949, having counted many of Rockport's community leaders among its members.
Smith-Brundrett House
Rockport, TX
Built in 1903 in Old Rockport beneath giant oaks, this early frame bungalow blends Cottage and Craftsman styling. It passed in 1920 to W. H. Smith, a grandson of Refugio pioneers, and in 1934 to rancher John Frederick Brundrett, whose family worked thousands of acres on Matagorda Island and Port Bay. The devout Brundretts kept the home for 53 years, until Fred died in 1987 at ninety-nine.
Baldwin-Brundrett House
Rockport, TX
This coastal Queen Anne house, dating in its basic form to the 1880s, was home in the 1890s to Aransas County Judge W. H. Baldwin, a booster of Rockport as a deep-water port. From 1917 to 1942 it sheltered George A. Brundrett, Jr., a Confederate veteran and cattle rancher whose spread covered 15,000 acres on Matagorda Island; his wife Flavilla is remembered for turning the parlor into a makeshift hospital, and some 200 people are said to have taken refuge here during the deadly 1919 hurricane. With its front-facing gable, lacy corner brackets, and original windows and doors, the house shows the Queen Anne style adapted to the Gulf coast.