Semi-isolation

Padre's semi-isolation continued another 20 years, interrupted by occasional excursion parties from passenger launches. A few visitors "camped" in the lower half of the Old Casino, a frame beach hotel and bath house which was decapitated by the hurricane. Visits by pleasure seekers increased as autos replaced covered wagons bringing family groups, most of whom stopped to camp at Laguna Vista where wells provided potable water.

The little train pulled by a wood-burning engine carried fewer passengers between Brownsville and Point Isabel as more and more automobiles jolted over rutted, unpaved roads. However, the usual loads of laundry from the many summer vacation homes in Point Isabel to domestics at Brownsville domiciles continued to shuttle back and forth. For bathing, women wore long stockings with swim suits which had elasticized bloomers coming to the knee. Often a female bather went into the water holding an umbrella to protect her complexion.

Passenger boats to Padre Island docked at rickety piers in Laguna Madre and picnickers had to tramp an invisible trail across the dunes to reach the Gulf-side.

The trek was especially hard since water jugs, picnic baskets and maybe watermelons had to be carried. In later years visitors, by paying a fee, could ride in style, as a four-wheel-drive truck of WWI vintage plowed through deep sand between the dunes.