Bolivar Peninsula

History

The peninsula was named in 1816 for Simón Bolívar, and Fort Las Casas was built in 1820. Samuel D. Parr was responsible for starting the settlement in 1838 that would later become Port Bolivar. The North Jetty, extending from Bolivar Peninsula, of the entrance to Galveston Bay started being constructed in 1874. At one time the Bolivar Peninsula was called the "breadbasket of Galveston" and the "watermelon capital of Texas". On April 23, 1991, communities of Bolivar Peninsula received an enhanced 9-1-1 system which routes calls to proper dispatchers and allows dispatchers to automatically view the address of the caller. The Bolivar Peninsula suffered heavy damage from Hurricane Ike that made landfall on the Texas coast on September 13, 2008.

Geography

The Bolivar Peninsula forms a very narrow strip of land in Galveston County, separating the eastern part of Galveston Bay from the Gulf of Mexico. Its narrowest point is a quarter of a mile and is near the unincorporated community of Gilchrist, where the peninsula was divided by Rollover Pass. According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of , of which is land and , or 11.7%, is water.

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• Great Egret

  Ardea alba Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  30,922
• Great-tailed Grackle

  Quiscalus mexicanus (Gmelin, 1788) · Aves
  29,497
• Red-winged Blackbird

  Agelaius phoeniceus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  27,521
• Northern Cardinal

  Cardinalis cardinalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  27,431
• Snowy Egret

  Egretta thula (Molina, 1782) · Aves
  26,787
• Laughing Gull

  Leucophaeus atricilla (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  23,792
• Northern Mockingbird

  Mimus polyglottos (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  22,797
• Neotropic Cormorant

  Phalacrocorax brasilianus (Gmelin, 1789) · Aves
  22,752

Largest nearby schools

• CRENSHAW EL AND MIDDLE
  Elementary · PORT BOLIVAR · 136 students · 8.5:1 ratio