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Place Name
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Corpus Christi
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Place Status (Type)
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city
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Capital Of
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Nueces County
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Population
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257,453 (1990)
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Location
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Nueces County, Texas (TX), United States, North America
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Latitude
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27°42'N
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Longitude
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97°17'W
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Corpus Christi
, city (1990 pop. 257,453),  Nueces co., S
Texas, 165 mi/266 km SE of San Antonio;
27°42'N 97°17'W.Elev. 35 ft/11 m. A busy
port of entry on Corpus Christi Bay at the entrance to Nueces Bay (an
inlet at the mouth of the Nueces R.); the main cargoes handled are
cotton, oil, grain, and chemicals. The city is a RR junction and a
petroleum and natural gas center, with much heavy industry. It has oil
refineries, smelting plants, chemical works, and food-processing
establishments. Excellent sports-fishing facilities, beaches, and a
mild climate make Corpus Christi a well-known tourist center. It is the
gateway to Padre Isl. Natl. Seashore; causeway crosses Laguna Madre to
Padre Isl. to SE (Padre and Mustang isls. are long sand barrier isls.,
connected by land, just N of causeway.) Tradition holds that the bay
was named by the Span. explorer Alonzo Alvarez de Pineda, who founded
it on Corpus Christi Day in 1519, but there is evidence that it was
named instead by the 1st settlers, who arrived from the lower Rio
Grande valley in the 1760s. In 1839, Col. H. L. Kinney founded a
trading post there, and traders, adventurers, and ne'er-do-wells
collected in a raffish colony on land claimed by both Texas
and Mexico. The small port and terminus for overland wagon-train
traffic boomed during the Mexican War. It was briefly
captured by the U.S. navy in the Civil War and later served as a supply
and shipping point for sheep and cattle. It developed industrially
after the discovery of oil in the area and the completion (1926) of a
deepwater channel (Intracoastal Waterway) past Mustang Isl. Its
remarkable growth is evidenced by a spectacular bridge
(235 ft/72 m high; completed 1959) over the
entrance to Nueces Bay, that links Portland to N, and by a large dam on
the Nueces R. (L. Corpus Christi, 35 mi/56 km
NW) that has increased local water supply. The city has many historical
points of interest and is the seat of Del Mar Col. (2 year; E and W
campuses) and Texas A and M Univ.—Corpus Christi. Corpus
Christi Naval Air Station is on the S shore of Corpus Christi. Mustang
Isl. State Park is 14 mi/23 km ESE of
downtown, but within city limits; Texas State Aquarium, Greyhound
Racetrack, Exposition Hall and Coliseum, Convention Center. There are
also 2 Naval Air landing fields in the city, Nueces co. Airport is to W
in nearby Robstown, Corpus Christi Internatl. Airport is W of downtown.
The city has suffered from occasional hurricanes; it is
partially protected from flooding by a sea wall
12,300 ft/3,749 m long, built bet. 1939 and
1941 to a ht. 14 ft/4 m beyond the high-water
mark of a devastating 1919 hurricane. Inc. 1852.
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