Moments in Time is a collection of recovered newspaper briefs and other publications, compiled by local historian, Steve Hathcock, offering a look back at the history of the Rio Grande Valley.
Steve Hathcock is a local historian and a regular columnist for the Port Isabel South Padre Press. He has spent many years collecting and sharing the history of the Rio Grande Valley, as well as treasure hunting and formerly owning an Island-based bookstore.
Monster Saw-Fish
The largest saw-fish ever caught in Corpus Christi waters, and the first in a great many years, it is said, was captured last night by Joe Valente and Degereo Garcia, Mexicans, fishermen in the employ of the Gulf Fish company. The monster measured 18 feet from the tip of his wicked jaw to the tail and weighed probably several hundred pounds. He was entrapped in a deep water gill net just off the reef, and in his struggles to escape literally tore the net to pieces. He was still struggling when Valente and Garcia rowed out to the spot where they sank the net. While the two men were rowing the monster to land Joe Valente received a cut in the leg which inflicted a deep and painful wound. If the blow had not been glancing his leg would have been severed. The fish is now tied to the Gulf Fish company’s pier, where he is today the wonder of scores of people who have visited the spot. Officials of the Gulf Fish company, who have been plying their occupation here for five years, say it is the first saw-fish they have ever seen captured in these waters.—Corpus Christi Democrat. Brownsville Herald. (Brownsville, Tex) May 13, 1912)
Giant Oyster Taken
A mammoth oyster, with a shell almost eight inches in length, was taken at Tarpon Beach yesterday by John P. St. John, president of the Padre Island Development company. This is one of the largest oysters ever pulled out of the Laguna Madre, and as Mr. St. John put it, was a “square meal” in itself. (Brownsville Daily Herald (Brownsville, Tex.), April 23, 1908)
Guano Mines Near This City Bought
Englishman Purchases Two Bat Caves Near Matamoros
Says that One Man Made $180,000 in One Year on New Mexico Cave.
Good for Fertilizing Oranges, Apples, Cotton, Etc.
For the purpose of buying as many bat caves as possible in this country, Arundel, an Englishman, came to this city one week ago. He has been in the United States for the past three weeks. During his stay here, he bought two bat caves near the city of Matamoros and will begin to exploit them in the near future.
Arundel said to a reporter of THE HERALD this morning that the guano which is extracted from the caves of the bats is very valuable as a fertilizer for oranges, cotton, apples and many other products. He said he had been unable to learn of the existence of any bat caves on this side of the river, but that he had discovered two near Matamoros and bought them.
Mr. Arundel would not divulge the exact site of the caves nor the price which he had paid for them. One man, with a bat cave in the territory of New Mexico, according to Mr. Arundel made $180,000 in one year from the sale of the guano. He said that a normal profit would be $30 per ton, and that thousands of tons are to be found in the old bat caves.
The guano mines on the seacoast of various countries, furnish the guano of the sea-birds, but Mr. Arundel said that this well-known product, was no better, if as good, than the guano from the bat caves. Mr. Arundel left this morning for New Mexico where he expects to purchase several other bat caves of which he has learned, and which he expects to prove very valuable.
He would not say this morning how much guano he expected to extract from the caves near Matamoros, but as he is an expert in the development of guano mines, it is to be understood that they will prove profitable in the extreme.
Editor’s note: Indigenous peoples in South America (especially the Inca) used seabird and bat guano as fertilizer for centuries before European contact.
In the 19th century, guano became a global commodity after European scientists (like Alexander von Humboldt) recognized its high nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium content. This sparked the “Guano Age,” with massive seabird guano mining on islands off Peru (Chincha Islands) and elsewhere.
Bat guano was mined from caves where large colonies (especially Mexican free-tailed bats) had accumulated deep deposits over centuries. It was prized for agriculture, particularly for cotton, citrus, apples, and other crops.
Bat guano was harvested in U.S. caves as early as the 1780s for gunpowder production.
During the American Civil War (1861–1865), the South turned heavily to bat guano from Texas and other caves to produce saltpeter. One kiln in New Braunfels, Texas, processed 2,500 lbs of guano daily into 100 lbs of saltpeter.
Guano became one of Texas’s largest mineral exports before oil.