Bolivar Peninsula, Texas

Bolivar Peninsula is a census-designated place (CDP) in Galveston County, Texas, United States. The population was 2,417 at the 2010 census. The communities of Port Bolivar, Crystal Beach, Caplen, Gilchrist, and High Island are located on Bolivar Peninsula.HistoryThe peninsula was named by 1816 for Simón Bolívar, the famed South American political leader involved in the independence movements of Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, and other Latin American nations. The pirates/privateers Jean Laffite and Louis-Michel Aury each used the Bolivar Peninsula as part of the pirate kingdom established around the Galveston Bay. The peninsula was part of an overland slave route between Louisiana and Galveston. James Long based his operations here since 1819 with the first establishment of Bolivar Peninsula, and Fort Las Casas was built here in 1820. Samuel D. Parr was responsible for starting the settlement in 1838 that would later become Port Bolivar.The Point Bolivar Lighthouse (which is now privately owned and not open to the public) has an important history with the peninsula, since 1872. It is located on the western end of the peninsula, directly across from Fort Travis Seashore Park. Fort Travis in Bolivar Peninsula, a separate facility from Fort Travis in Galveston, was built with construction started in 1898. The North Jetty, extending from Bolivar Peninsula, of the entrance to Galveston Bay started being constructed in 1874. From 1896 to 1942, the Gulf & Interstate, a subsidiary of Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railway, connected Beaumont to Galveston Island with aid of train ferries. At one time the Bolivar Peninsula was called the "breadbasket of Galveston" and the "watermelon capital of Texas".