Shoal Point and Half Moon Shoal Lighthouse
Texas City, Galveston County, Texas
Marker Inscription
A number of families settled along Galveston Bay in the 1830s after land grants were awarded to veterans of the republic of Texas army and navy. An early community at this site became known officially as Shoal Point in 1878 when a U. S. Post Office was established. It was renamed Texas City in 1893. The commencement of shipping in Galveston Bay led to increased settlement in the area. In 1854 the U. S. Government erected a lighthouse in the bay two miles east of Shoal Point at Half Moon Shoal. One of several lighthouses built along the Texas Gulf Coast that year, the Half Moon Shoal lighthouse wa sa red and white painted frame structure with galleries surrounding the main portion of the building and a captain's walk around the light. A bell served as a fog warning device. Decommissioned during the Civil War, the lighthouse was returned to service in 1868 and provided hazard warnings until the disastrous 1900 storm, when a steamship broke free from its mooring and drifted into the structure, destroying it and killing keeper Charles K. Bowen. A beacon replaced the lighthouse until the shipping lanes in the bay were chanted after the construction of the Texas City channel and dike.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
As families settled along Galveston Bay in the 1830s on grants awarded to Texas Republic veterans, shipping traffic swelled and the government moved to mark the bay's dangers. In 1854 it raised a frame lighthouse at Half Moon Shoal, a red-and-white structure with galleries and a fog bell, one of several built along the Texas coast that year. Decommissioned during the Civil War and restored in 1868, it guided mariners until the catastrophic 1900 hurricane drove a runaway steamship into it, destroying the light and killing keeper Charles K. Bowen.
Why it matters
The lighthouse ties the growth of a Gulf Coast port to the human cost of maritime safety, and its destruction in the 1900 Galveston storm links it to the deadliest natural disaster in U.S. history.
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Related people
- · Charles K. Bowen
Themes & tags
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