Passport to Texas

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

For most of its 155 year history, the Port Isabel Lighthouse, like a lonely sentry, kept silent watch over ships that ventured into the shallow gulf waters of the lower Laguna Madre. One of sixteen lighthouses serving the state, this renovated structure is evocative of a bygone era; one that continues to capture the imagination of visitors.

A lot of people are fascinated with lighthouses.

Gabriel Gildinas is Port Isabel’s lighthouse keeper.

A lot of the visitors that we have are inland, so seeing a lighthouse is like finding treasure to them. It’s just an unbelievable site that they want to come, they want to experience this. It brings a lot to their imaginations. You just see the children. They’re just unbelievably fascinated with it. They just want to run up the stairs.

New technologies have made the need for lighthouses obsolete. But at one time – they were lifesavers.

Well, in the past, the use of this lighthouse was mainly to help the ships in this area. At the time, this was one of the largest shipping ports in the entire world. The lighthouses, they really don’t serve much of a purpose nowadays because of the GPS- global positioning system, but back in that time, lighthouses were like the GPS. The only way you could navigate and knows what’s in front of you is by knowing there’s a lighthouse right there.

Find a link to more information about the Port Isabel Lighthouse at passporttotexas.org.

That’s our show for today…with research and writing help from Loren Seeger…For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti

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