Exploring Copano Bay: History and Geography
Revised by: Jesús "Frank" de la Teja
Published: 1952
Updated: November 5, 2024
Copano Bay, just west of Rockport off Refugio and Aransas counties, is a twelve-by-six-mile extension of Aransas Bay (at 28° 07' N, 97° 07' W). The bay was first explored in 1766 by Diego Ortiz Parrilla, who named it Santo Domingo. The bay may have derived its present name from the Copane Indians in the area by way of Fray Manuel de Silva, who in 1791 visited a settlement called Los Copanos. His description of the area, including as adjacent to a large lagoon, fits Copano Bay. The surrounding flat, marshy terrain is surfaced by sand and dark clays that support mesquite and grasses.
Bibliography:
Robert A. Ricklis, The Karankawa Indians of Texas (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1996).
Categories:
Time Periods:
Places:
The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this entry.
Revised by Jesús "Frank" de la Teja, “Copano Bay,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed March 09, 2026, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/copano-bay.
Published by the Texas State Historical Association.
TID:
RRC03
All copyrighted materials included within the Handbook of Texas Online are in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 related to Copyright and “Fair Use” for Non-Profit educational institutions, which permits the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA), to utilize copyrighted materials to further scholarship, education, and inform the public. The TSHA makes every effort to conform to the principles of fair use and to comply with copyright law.
For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
- 1952
- November 5, 2024
This entry belongs to the following special projects:
