Talk:Boca Chica (Texas)

History outline and summary
There was a rather extensive summary of the history of the area of Boca Chica contained in the 2013 Draft EIS done by the FAA for SpaceX for the proposed launch site. EIS's often have to provide some deep-ish historical research on an area since they are looking for both pre-historic archaelogical and historical (Native American, or pre-US Spanish, or American war battles, etc.) data on the area before allowing some project to go forward, or constraining how that project can proceed.

Since the doc is a US government doc, it is Wiki available under acceptable licenses.

A Wiki-ready citation is here:

The relevant text in the US government document is:

"In 1904 the St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico Railroad was completed to Brownsville. This railroad opened the area to northern farmers who began to come to the area at the turn of the twentieth century. They cleared the land, built irrigation systems and roads, and introduced large-scale truck farming and citrus farming. The new farming endeavors began a new period of prosperity around Brownsville. Improvements such as water and sewer lines were completed for the city at this time. Port Isabel, however, remained a small coastal town with a population of less than 200 (Garza 2012b; Garza and Long 2012b; Hildebrand 1950).

"The availability of cheap land in the area created a strong interest in land speculation. Special trains were dispatched to bring land speculators to the area and by the early 1920s as many as 200 people a day were coming to see the land (Garza and Long 2012b; Hildebrand 1950).

"One of the more notable land speculation ventures was the construction of the Del Mar Resort on Boca Chica Beach. Advertised as being on the same latitude as Miami, the resort was built in the 1920s by Colonel Sam Robinson, who moved to the Rio Grande Valley in 1917. The resort had 20 day-cabins available for rent, a bathhouse, and a ballroom. It was quite successful resort until 1933, when a hurricane destroyed most of the buildings. The remaining buildings were turned into a base for the Coast Guard during World War II. As a result of the Great Depression and the hurricane damage, the owners of the property were not able to reopen the resort after the end of the war (Garcia 2003).

"The 1933 hurricane spurred the Works Progress Administration to take part in the dredging and construction of the port of Brownsville, a venture that the city had been trying to complete since 1928. The port was officially opened in 1936. The completion of the port [NOTE: which created the human-made northern boundary of Boca Chica (Texas) area and cut it off to land transport routes except (as now) from Brownsville to the east] made Brownsville the shipping center for the lower Rio Grande Valley and Mexico. This helped the economy of the town weather the Great Depression and by the beginning of World War II Brownsville was poised for another boom (Garza and Long 2012b).

"Shrimpers moved to the region from Louisiana and other parts of Texas in the 1940s and the town began exporting large amounts of shrimp. Additionally, cotton developed into a large-scale export crop to the area in the late 1940s. In 1949, the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway was extended to Brownsville, increasing its shipping capabilities. Brownsville became the leading exporter of cotton in the 1950s after the demand for cotton increased. The boom continued into the 1960s. The population in Brownsville increased by 12,000 people from the 1950s to the 1960s (Garza and Long 2012b).

"In Port Isabel the Intracoastal Waterway had increased trade. A bridge connecting the town to Padre Island was constructed in 1954, helping to make the small town a tourist destination. By this time the population of Port Isabel has increased to 5,300 (Garza 2012b).

"In the early 1960s, John A. Caputa, a radio personality turned real estate developer from Chicago, decided to build a retirement community for Polish immigrants 22 miles east of Brownsville. One of his three business partners already owned 3,250 acres of land inland from the site of the former Del Mar Resort. Together, they created the Rio Grande Beach Corporation to develop the community, with Caputa in charge of marketing the house lots (Kelly ca. 1979). Using radio and print ads, Caputa marketed the retirement community to the working-class Polish community in Chicago, Illinois as the Fort Lauderdale of the west (Heaton 2008; Kelly ca. 1979). He had the property landscaped and brought trains full of Polish immigrants to the site (Chapman 1992).

"Caputa named the retirement community Kennedy Shores after President Kennedy, whom he greatly admired. Lots were sold for $1,200 and houses for $12,500. Within a few years, Kennedy Shores consisted of 30 residences, a restaurant, and a hotel. The community had its own water treatment plant and sewer and electrical services (Garza 2012a). However, in 1967 Hurricane Beulah destroyed the restaurant and utilities and washed away large parts of the property. As a result of the storm, the corporation experienced financial difficulties and 1,000 acres of the original tract were sold at a sheriff’s sale (Kelly ca. 1979).

"Seeing the sheriff’s sale as an opportunity to break from the corporation and continue in his own venture, Caputa purchased the 1,000-acre tract in 1968 and subdivided it into 5,000 lots, which he aimed to sell for $5,000 each. He had electricity restored to the area (but no other utilities) and completed other improvements to the property worth an estimated $250,000. While completing the improvements, Caputa’s former partners began a legal dispute with him over the sheriff’s sale, miring Caputa in legal fees and stalling construction of the village (Kelly ca. 1979).

"Desperate for financing, Caputa took to the radio airwaves again and asked his audience to lend him money towards constructing the retirement village, with the promise that he would repay them with 12 percent interest after a year. Unfortunately, Caputa’s financial and legal problems persisted and he was only able to construct about 35–45 houses, a hotel, a restaurant (demolished, but concrete foundation remains), and a swimming pool, between the late 1960s and mid-1970s (Chapman 1992; Kelly ca. 1992). People from Chicago’s Polish community did, however, move to the village, and in 1975, renamed it Kopernik Shores, after Polish astronomer Nikolai Kopernik (Garcia 2003; Garza 2012a). In 1978, the population of Kopernik Shores was 26 (Garza 2012a). Currently, this development is referred to as Boca Chica Village."

That is a reasonably detailed summary of the 20th Century history of Boca Chica and the founding of what became the village on a small part of the Boca Chica area. N2e (talk)


 * I've used a bit of the information from the US government sources to improve the article, and have added that source citation I provided above to the article. More of this could be used, but I think I got the major part on the early 20th century history.  N2e (talk) 02:23, 14 August 2020 (UTC)

Move discussion in progress
There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:Boca Chica Village, Texas which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. —RMCD bot 20:34, 15 August 2020 (UTC)

Rio Grande
Since "rio" means river, using Rio Grande "River" is redundant, as would Rue Bourbon "Street". 2603:8080:B200:5CDE:2186:139B:91AD:F458 (talk) 17:00, 27 October 2022 (UTC)

Whoever chose to lead off with the word "subdelta" should feel quite proud
Perhaps it is an accepted/acknowledged scientific term. However I cannot find it in a dictionary, google, or ... Wikipedia. I'm sorry, let me correct that - google did find it, in one article. This one. Conciseness is usually a positive virtue. Using seven words when one will do usually is not. However, when many or most users' comprehension is impeded by fancy lingo, https://www.reddit.com/r/latin/comments/10aufi/what_is_the_most_arcane_and_useless_latin_word/ 2600:6C56:6600:C516:BC5A:235:DF54:4AC4 (talk) 01:48, 17 April 2023 (UTC)