Mustang Island State Park Port Aransas

Padre Island was part of a Spanish land grant to Padre Nicholas Balli about 1800, and the Balli family established a ranching tradition that continued for several decades. Records show that an Englishman named Robert A. Mercer and one H. L. Kinney both ran cattle on Mustang Island in the 1850s and that Uriah Hayden obtained a patent on land in the state park area in 1858. A small fort was built on Mustang Island during the U.S. Mexican War, 1846-48, to guard the entrance to Aransas Bay. During the Civil War, the coastal area was blockaded by the Union Navy, but the conflict ended with no major battles occurring in this area. Ranching resumed, and a meat-packing plant was built and operated until the 1880s.