Aransas County history

In 1880, at the first census after the organization of the county, the population was 966, considerably more than half being resident at Rockport, the county seat.

In 1882 it was estimated that the value of the transportation and industrial interests centered at Rockport and Fulton amounted to $2,000,000 annually.

In 1888 the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railroad (later Texas and New Orleans) reached Rockport, thus ensuring the town’s continued importance as a shipping center.

The principal factor in bringing the county forward in this respect was the construction, about 1890, of the Aransas Pass Railroad to Rockport.

In 1903 Franz Frandolig sold the property for $3,500 and moved to Port Aransas where his wife died in April of that year.

The City of Aransas Pass was founded in 1909 by a promotion of a great land lottery.

The City of Aransas Pass was founded in 1909 by a promotion of a great land lottery. It developed as a fishing village and the first shipment of shrimp to San Antonio was in 1912.

By 1950 it produced fifty-one million pounds of shrimp.

In 1953, the Aransas County Navigation District purchased 604 acres of marshland, surrounded by Little Bay and Aransas Bay, from the State of Texas.

As early as 1954, the Aransas County Navigation District had developed a long-range plan, which included Frandolig Island.

In 1955, the ACND considered leasing Frandolig Island to develop the island into a “family-type resort” at the cost of approximately $5 million.

In 1961, Carl Krueger, Jr., a visionary and developer from San Antonio, purchased 165 acres, known as Frandolig Point.

Gross sales in 1990 totaled $193,138,955.

An archeological survey of El Copano was made in the summer of 2005.