Pelican Island from Pier 21 | Galveston, Texas

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👂Listen: Jean Lafitte
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👂Listen: Pier 21
👂Listen: Port of Galveston

Interested in information covered in this episode? Dive deeper into the links below! :
Quarantine station
Galveston Naval Museum
Seawolf Park
Texas A&M University at Galveston

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Transcript:
While standing on Pier 21, you can see Pelican Island across the harbor. Pelican Island can only be accessed by the 51st Street Bridge, which can be seen at the far west end of Galveston Harbor. Today Pelican Island is home to Texas A&M University at Galveston Sea Wolf Park and the Galveston Naval Museum. The Galveston Naval Museum exhibits a World War II destroyer escort, the USS Stewart, and a World War II era submarine, The USS Cavalla. Texas A&M University at Galveston was established in 1965. Prominent Galveston businessman George P. Mitchell donated the land. This campus is currently home to the Texas Maritime Academy, one of the seven maritime academies in the United States. The campus is also world-renowned for its maritime business and marine biology program.
 
The Pelican Island we see today is primarily manmade from mud pulled from the Galveston, Texas City, and Houston ship channels during the Dredging projects over the past century. When a ship channel is deepened and widened, the mud they pull from the ship channel must go somewhere. Pelican Island became the ideal place to expand real estate along the Galveston and Texas City ship channels. Over the past 100 years, Pelican Island has steadily grown into what you see today. When you look at old maps from the 1800s, you will see two small islands north of Galveston itself. These were known as Pelican Island and Pelican Spit. Seawolf Park currently sits at the location of Pelican Spit, and it's also where one of the quarantine stations for immigration was built in the early 1900s. If you have time on your trip to Galveston, I recommend driving to the Far East end of Pelican Island to experience the Galveston Naval Museum in Seawolf Park. 

Seawolf Park is known as a first-class fishing destination in this part of Texas. As you look across the water from Pier 21, you will likely see ships, Oil rigs, tugboats, or all of the above. Pelican Island is home to multiple maritime-related businesses, including dry docks for vessel and oil rig repair, tugboat companies, offshore vessel services, and even a dock specifically made to loa

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