A Trip To Galveston & Caching 4/20/2010

We drove down to Galveston this morning to do some caching and do a little sightseeing of whatever Hurican Ike left when it roared through here 2 years ago. Our first cache was a virtual cache along the ocean on the Gulf of Mexico on the seawall. It was a bronze statue of a dolphin and if you look at the pictures you can see some of the destruction Ike left. Next cache was on the Galveston College campus and as we drove there we could see house after house after house that was unlivable or destroyed.

After that cache we went into the Old City Cemetery for a cache near the burial site of Michael B. Menard. Michel Brindamour Menard, also known as Michael B. Menard, was a French-Canadian born near Montreal in 1805. He arrived in Texas in 1829 at the age of 14 and entered the fur trading company of John Jacob Astor.
In the 1830s, Menard began speculating in Texas land. Because land was only granted to Mexican born Texans at that time, many of Menard’s land deals were made by Juan Seguin, a Mexican citizen who eventually fought under Sam Houston at the Battle of San Jacinto. Seguin purchased 4,600 acres at the eastern end of Galveston Island on behalf of Menard in December 1836. Menard, needing additional money to promote the town formed the Galveston City Company with Samuel May Williams and other prominent Texas businessmen in 1838. Galveston was incorporated a year later.
The City of Galveston was named after Bernardo de Galvez, an 18th century governor of Spanish Louisiana who never set foot on the island.
Texas politician, Menard was a Signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence in 1836. He served as a Member of Texas Republic Congress from 1840 to 1842.
Other members of the Menard family left Montreal at a young age for the US. Michel's uncle, Pierre Menard, a successful businessman, established on a point of land between the Mississippi and Kaskasia Rivers, became a judge of the court of common pleas, territorial commissioner, captain of the militia, delegate to the territorial legislature, and presided at the first elective legislature of Illinois Territory. It was in his honor that a provision of the new State's constitution allowed the lieutenant governor to be a naturalized American citizen for a minimum of two years, as opposed to thirty years required for a governor.
Michel Menard's grand uncle, Jean-Baptist Menard dit Brindamour, had been a French soldier, and when the American Revolutionary War broke out he organized a company of volunteers and joined forces with the Americans, ultimately becoming a prisoner of war in Montreal. After finding the cache we walked around the cemetery looking at some of the old burial sites and old tombs. We saw several graves of some of the few people they could find after the 1900 Galveston Hurricane. There were about 8000 people killed in that hurricane and most of them were washed out to sea so there weren't many bodies left to bury.

Next cache was at the waterfront down between some of the many fishing boats moored there. As we left the pier we saw the Peanut Butter Warehouse which was built in 1895 and was used at one time to store candy and peanut butter. Today it is a 25,000 square foot shopping paradise that has an assortment of furniture, Depression glass, unusual gifts, Circle E candles, homemade confections, Thomas KinKaid furnishings and antiques. The Warehouse, as the name implies, also sells fresh ground peanut butter. They have also redone the top floors of the building so there is thirteen individually designed loft units which offer unique amenities such as fireplaces, Jacuzzi tubs, and hand-crafted kitchen cabinets and called it Peanut Butter Lofts.

Next cache was another virtual at the home once lived in by Jean Lafitte famous pirate. In late 1815 and early 1816, the Lafitte brothers agreed to act as spies for Spain, which was in the midst of the Mexican War of Independence. The brothers were collectively known as "Number thirteen". Pierre would keep the Spanish informed of happenings in New Orleans, and Jean was sent to Galveston Island, a part of Spanish Texas that served as the home base of privateer Louis-Michel Aury, who claimed to be a Mexican revolutionary. By early 1817, other revolutionaries had begun to congregate at Galveston, hoping to make it their base to wrest Mexico from Spanish control. Lafitte visited in March 1817. Two weeks into his stay, the two leaders of the revolutionaries left the island. The following day, Lafitte took command of the island and appointed his own officers. On April 18, he sailed for New Orleans to report his activities.[59] With Spanish permission, Lafitte returned to Galveston, promising to make weekly reports of the activities there.
Lafitte's motives were not selfless; he essentially turned Galveston Island into a new Barataria. Like Barataria, Galveston was a seaward island that protected a large inland bay. It had the advantage of being outside the authority of the United States, and it was largely uninhabited, except by Karankawas.
Lafitte quickly began improving his new colony. Existing houses were torn down, and 200 new, sturdier buildings were constructed. Ships operating from Galveston flew the flag of Mexico, but they engaged in no revolutionary activities, as Lafitte worried about a potential Spanish invasion. Aury returned to Galveston several months later, but left in July when he realized that the men were unwilling to revolt.
In less than a year, Lafitte's colony grew to 100–200 men and several women. All newcomers were personally interviewed by Lafitte and required to take an oath of loyalty to him. The headquarters of the operation was a two-story building facing the inland harbor, where landings were made. The building was surrounded by a moat and painted red; it became known as Maison Rouge. Most regular business was conducted aboard Lafitte's ship, The Pride, where he also lived. Lafitte created letters of marque from a nonexistent nation for all of the ships sailing from Galveston. These letters gave the ships permission to attack ships from all nations.
In April 1818, the United States passed a law prohibiting the import of slaves into any port in the United States. The law left several loopholes, however. It essentially gave permission to any ship to capture a slave ship, regardless of the country from which it originated. Furthermore, any newly imported slaves who were turned over to the customs office would be sold within the United States, with half the profits of the sale going to the people who turned them in. Lafitte worked with several smugglers, including Jim Bowie, to profit from the poorly written law. Lafitte's men would target ships that carried slaves. Smugglers would purchase the slaves for a discounted price, march them to Louisiana, and turn them in to customs officials. A representative of the smuggler would purchase the slaves at the ensuing auction, and the smuggler would be given half of the purchase price. The smuggler was then the lawful owner of the slaves and could transport them to sell in other parts of the United States.
The colony experienced hardships in 1818. After a Karankawa woman was kidnapped, the Indian tribe attacked and killed five members of Lafitte's colony. The corsairs aimed the artillery at the Indians, killing most of the men in the tribe. A hurricane in September covered almost all of the island in water, killing several people and destroying four ships and most buildings. Only six homes were habitable afterwards.
Around 1820, Lafitte reportedly married Madeline Regaud, possibly the widow or daughter of a French colonist who had died during an ill-fated expedition to Galveston. In 1821, the schooner USS Enterprise was sent to Galveston to remove Lafitte from the Gulf after one of the pirate's captains attacked an American merchant ship. Lafitte agreed to leave the island without a fight, and in 1821 or 1822 departed on his flagship, the Pride, burning his fortress and settlements and reportedly taking immense amounts of treasure with him. All that remains of Maison Rouge is the foundation, located at 1417 Avenue A near the Galveston wharf. The house mentioned in the previous sentence is the one in the pictures.


Our next cache was also a virtual located at The Bishop's Palace. The Bishop's Palace, also known as Gresham's Castle, is an ornate Victorian house located on Broadway and 14th Street in the East End Historic District of Galveston, Texas. The American Institute of Architects has listed the home as one of the 100 most significant buildings in the United States, and the Library of Congress has classified it as one of the fourteen most representative Victorian structures in the nation.
The house was built between 1887 and 1893 by Galveston architect Nicholas J. Clayton for lawyer and politician Walter Gresham. In 1923 the Roman Catholic Diocese of Galveston purchased the house, and, situated across the street from the Sacred Heart Church, it served as a bishop's residence. After the diocesan offices were moved to Houston, the diocese opened the mansion to the public in 1963, with proceeds from tours being used to help fund the Newman Center, operating in the basement, serving Catholic students at the nearby University of Texas Medical Branch.
The home is estimated to have cost $250,000 at the time; today its value is estimated at over $5.5 million. The home is also ranked among the top 100 homes in the U.S. for its architectural significance.


We only did 2 other caches one in a small park and the other in a garden called the Rotary Labyrinth and Meditation Garden and it was on the campus of the University of Texas Medical School. UTMB was established in 1891 with one building and fewer than 50 students. Today UTMB's campus has grown to more than 70 buildings and an enrollment of more than 2,500 students. The 84-acre campus includes four schools, three institutes for advanced study, a major medical library, seven hospitals (including an affiliated Shriners Burns Hospital), a network of clinics that provide a full range of primary and specialized medical care, and numerous research facilities. After we finished caching we drove around looking at the rest of the island and damage from Hurrican Ike. We stopped and grabbed a sandwich and chips for lunch and sat in the car next to the Gulf and ate. We then drove back to the coach for the afternoon and did our usual routine.

We went out to eat at a neat little place just down the block from the campgrounds. It was called Bayview Duck Restaurant. It was run by an English husband and wife and decorated just like what we would imagine a pub to look like. We had Scotch Eggs, bangers and mash and fish and chips. I also had Stella Artois draft beer which was great. The owner, who was the bartender, made quite a few specialty beer mixtures such as Bishop's Collar-Dry Blackthorn & Guinness Stout, Brown & Bitter-Fuller's ESB & Newcastle Brown Ale, Celtic-Belhaven Scottish Ale & Guinness Stout, Dubliner-Smithwick Irish Ale & Guinness Stout, Gobble: Gobble-Hobgoblin & Newcastle Brown Ale, Honey Castle=Dundee Honey Brown & Newcastle Brown Ale, Rocket Fuel-Belhaven Wee Heavy & Fuller's ESB, Snakebite-Dry Blackthorn Cider & Harp Lager, Special Hen-Fuller's ESB & Old Speckled Hen, Rook & Wee Castle-Newcastle Brown Ale & Belhaven Wee Heavy. I would have loved to try one but didn't really know if I would like them. After dinner we went back to the RV and watched TV till it was time to turn in. Well until tomorrow we love and miss you all. Mom & Dad Dori & Dick