Preservation Association Announces 2024 Winter History Lecture Series

A Little Texas History and the Man Who Saved Port Aransas, Mark Creighton (Jan. 8, 2024)

Mark Creighton (Photo by Dan Parker, Port Aransas South Jetty)

Mark Creighton will tell the story of the early history of Texas, how one man made significant contributions to the Republic Of Texas, the Early State of Texas and the world at large and through a twist of fate saved our community after the devastating 1919 storm.

Creighton is a local historian, columnist, museum archivist, author and a founding and lifetime member of the Port Aransas Preservation and Historical Association (The Preservation Association).  He continues his support of the organization by increasing the digital archives, building displays, writing a column on Port Aransas history in the Port Aransas South Jetty and by gathering support for local history.

The Story of the Karankawa Culture and Its Descendants, Tim Seiter (Jan. 22, 2024)

Tim Seiter

This lecture provides a general overview of the Karankawa peoples from their inception as a culture in the thirteenth century to the present day. Significantly, this presentation rectifies various myths attached to the Karankawas and amends the time-worn narrative that these peoples were destroyed with the onslaught of Anglo-American and Tejano expansion.

Tim Seiter is a Ph.D. Candidate from Southern Methodist University. He is currently putting the finishing touches on a manuscript about eighteenth-century military life in Spanish Texas for UT Press. Seiter also works closely with the Karankawas of Texas, and his dissertation will be a general history of these peoples. His research for that dissertation has appeared in the Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Texas Highways and The Texas Tribune.

Fish Stories, Farley Boats and Their Place in the Evolution of Sportfishing Boats, Capt. Dee Wallace (Jan. 29, 2024)

Capt. Dee Wallace

Capt. Dee Wallace will explore the folk history and evolution of sportfishing and sportfishing boats.  Along with some fish stories, Capt. Wallace will also discuss his research on the Farley Boat being the first power-driven fishing boat in the US.

Capt. Wallace grew up in Port Aransas after his family arrived in 1963 when he was eight years old. He worked his way up from a Woody’s dock boy, to deckhand, to licensed captain at 20 years of age.  At 23, he had his 500 ton captain’s license. These years put him in contact with many, now-legendary captains. He himself was a captain on one of the pioneering mothership operations, the French Look.  He has judged tag-and-release categories for the Deep Sea Roundup for years, along with other tournaments — and was inducted into the Port Aransas Boatmen Hall of Fame in 2023.  Capt. Wallace currently is the tournament director at Fisherman’s Wharf and has been a broker for Fox Yacht Sales for 20 years.

The Ghost Towns of Copano Bay, Pam Wheat Stranahan (Feb. 5, 2024)

Pam Stranahan with historical characters from Aransas County’s past.

Pam Stranahan will relate the stories of towns that lined Copano Bay in the 1830s through the 1880s. Ships sailed the natural channel from Aransas Pass to Copano Bay, which provided water transport for Spanish settlements in the interior as early as 1795. Other towns were settled as colonists arrived. On Live Oak Point, Aransas City was established; later the town of Lamar challenged that port; St. Mary’s served shippers until two hurricanes in the late 1880s caused severe damage. The town of Copano struggled with a water shortage and only lasted until the mid 1800s. The founding and growth of Rockport after the Civil War brought the downfall of the early settlements.

Stranahan retired as executive director of the Texas Archeological Society (TAS) in 2010 after serving eight years. Before becoming executive director for TAS, Pam was director of education at the Houston Museum of Natural Science and director of education at Crow Canyon Archaeological Center, Cortez, Colorado.

Stranahan was education coordinator for the La Salle Shipwreck Project with Texas Historical Commission (THC) during the excavation of La Belle. She served on the founding Board for the Museum of the Coastal Bend in Victoria, Texas.

Stranahan serves on boards for Aransas County Historical Society, the Aransas County Historical Commission and the History Center. In 2022 she received the “Volunteer of the Year” award from the History Center. In 2024 she will receive the Ruth Lester Lifetime Achievement Award from Texas Historical Commission.

In 2013 Stranahan was named Citizen of the Year by the Rockport-Fulton Chamber of Commerce. In 2011 she made a Fellow of the Texas Archeological Society for her contributions to Texas archeology. In 2004 she was awarded the Society for American Archaeology (SAA) Award for Excellence in Public Education.

The History of the Coast Guard in Port Aransas, Master Chief Officer Anthony Sofo (Feb. 12, 2024)

UT’s Marine Science Institute: Its Creation, History and Legacy, Sally Palmer (Feb. 19, 2024)

Sally Palmer

A look through the years at the beginning and growth of the University of Texas Marine Science Institute.

Sally Palmer is the Assistant Director of Communications and Special Projects for The University of Texas Marine Science Institute in Port Aransas, Texas. She is a graduate of Flour Bluff High School. Sally attended the University of Rhode Island, where she received a bachelor of science degree in marine biology. She earned her master’s degree in marine science from The University of Texas at Austin. Sally currently handles all development, project management and communications for the University of Texas Marine Science Institute.