About Corpus Christi

Corpus Christi is an exciting and friendly city on the lower Gulf Coast of Texas. Beautiful beaches and hotels, lovely homes, and restaurants await the summer visitor or anyone who might be interested in establishing a life along the Texas coast. A quick check in the Corpus Christi, Texas business directory will reveal just how much there is to see and do in this fascinating city by the sea.

As for history, Corpus Christi has plenty of it. The Spanish explorer Alonzo Alvarez de Pineda discovered a lovely bay in the New World in the year 1519. Blue waters and abundant animal life convinced that explorer and those who came after him that this new land offered a host of opportunities. Along the shores of that bay would eventually grow the largest city on the Texas coast. Years after Pineda's discovery, a small trading post sprang up on the shores of the bay. Called Kinney's Trading Post, this small community was created by Colonel Henry Lawrence Kinney, who was not only a colonizer of Texas but also an adventurer and impresario. His trading post was created as a place to sell all types of supplies to a Mexican revolutionary army that was located inland about twenty-five miles. Later, Kinney's Trading Post would service the United States Army when General Zachary Taylor set up his camp there in 1845 in preparation for war with Mexico.

Approximately one year later, the site took on the name Corpus Christi, which means "body of Christ," and it was incorporated as a full-pledged city in 1852. The Port of Corpus Christi opened in 1926, growing to become the sixth largest port in the country, and in 1941 the Corpus Christ Naval Air Station was commissioned there as part of America's preparation for World War II. The USS Lexington, a World War II aircraft carrier, calls the port home today, and is open to tours for the public. Information on the port and tours of this carrier turned museum and the nearby Texas State Aquarium can be found by calling those facilities, whose numbers are available in the Corpus Christi, Texas yellow pages.

Written by Lyndsey Morgan