Nueces County Early History

Early History of Nueces County

The first known inhabitants of Nueces County were a culture known as Aransas. The Aransas campsites have been found by archaeologist in Copano Bay, Aransas County, Baffin Bay and Kenedy County; some of these campsites are 4,000 years old. The region has also been occupied by Coahuiltecans, Karankawas, Lipan Apaches, and Tonkawas Indian tribes. These tribes were split into smaller groups to form the Atakapa, Borado, Cavas, Capoque, Emet, Kohani, Kopani, Malaquite, Payaya, Sana, Tamique, and many groups (Handbook of Texas Online).

The French established a colony in 1685 under René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle. The Spanish later raced to the region following the French under Alonso De León, the governor of Coahuila (Handbook of Texas Online). On February 26, 1747, Corpus Christi Bay was finally discovered by Prudencio de Orobio y Basterra, captain of the presidio at La Bahía. A settlement, Villa de Vedoya, and mission, Nuestra Señora del Soto, was established under the proposal of José de Escandón, governor and captain general of Nuevo Santander. (Handbook of Texas Online).

Source: Christopher Long, "NUECES COUNTY," Handbook of Texas Online (http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hcn05), accessed November 09, 2011.