Copano Bay: Rise and Fall of a Texas Seaport Built of Oyster Shells

The northwestern shore of Copano Bay holds the ruins of what was once the most important port on the Texas coast. The shoreline has receded more than 100 feet since 1935. The last surviving structures hang over an eroding bluff. El Copano is accessible only by boat — and it's still disappearing. This episode tells the full story: the Copane people the bay is named for and the word "Aransas" they left behind. James Power, born in County Wexford, Ireland, who crossed the Atlantic to recruit settlers — and watched roughly 150 of them die of cholera in New Orleans before they ever reached Texas. The Texas Revolution, when Mexican troops landed at Copano and Texan cavalry captured three Mexican supply ships on the same shore without firing a single shot. The Confederate blockade runners who used the bay's hidden channels during the Civil War. And the quiet abandonment — post office closed 1867, last residents gone by 1888 — that preceded the bay swallowing what was left.

Available August 3, 2026