Billed as THE premier resort area in Texas and ranked as one of Americas top 10 beaches, South Padre Island (SPI), as the name implies, is the south end of what was once a long narrow sand spit of land along the Gulf of Mexico in southeast Texas called Padre Island. (It is now separated by a channel.) The 34 mile long stretch of SPI's white sand beach is bordered to the east by the Gulf of Mexico and to the West by the Laguna Madre bay.

All of Padre Island is part of the Padre Island National Seashore which encompasses 65.5 miles of Gulf beach beginning south of Houston, near Corpus Christi, and ending near Brownsville. The entire area is popular with "Winter Texans", their moniker for "snow birds". Many are from Canada but there are also some from the colder northern states.

The island has quite an illustrious history going way back to at least 1519 when Alonso Alvarez de Pineda sailed past the Isla Blanca (White Island) while charting the Gulf of Mexico for Spain.

In 1804, Padre Jose Nicolas Balli, a Catholic Missionary Priest, founded a settlement on what is now South Padre Island called Rancho Santa Cruz where he raised cattle and horses. (There's a bronze statue of him at the eastern end of the Queen Isabella Causeway.) In 1829, the year he died, he was awarded title to the Island by the Mexican government, hence the name "Padre" Island. His nephew, Juan Jose Balli, lived on the Island until 1853. Numerous Balli descendants still live in the Lower Rio Grande Valley.

After Mexico won independence from Spain in 1821, the Anglo settlers of Texas began wanting independence for themselves. Soon revolution swept into the Rio Grande Valley and on April 21, 1836, Sam Houston's forces annihilated the Mexican army, led by General Santa Ana, which was massed at Matamoros (just across the current border at Brownsville) in the Battle of San Jacinto, and the Republic of Texas was born. Then came the Civil War, 1861-65.

Other notable SPI historic events: 1933 - a devastating hurricane hit the area.

1954 - the first swing bridge opened. Before this, ferries were used to go to Padre Island.

1964 - the Port Mansfield Gulf Channel, which separated South Padre Island from Padre Island forever, was completed.

1974 - the 2.5 mile long Queen Isabella Causeway was completed.

Sept 2001 - a barge hit the causeway knocking out 3 of the higher sections, 9 cars plunged into the channel, 8 lives were lost. The causeway was repaired & reopened 2 months later.

SPI web site includes good map & interesting history summary: http://www.spichamber.com/visitorguide/bigmap.html Here's the link to the national seashore web site http://www.nps.gov/pais/myweb2a/index.htm.