The Mystery of Galveston
When I was a boy growing up in Houston, TX on St. Lo Road, next door to us lived Walter and Dorothy Lane. Walter was Dorothy’s second husband, her first had been lost in the Galveston Hurricane of 1900. This seemed to me like old news after over 50 years, and even older after 100 years, but now it seems like this past week.
When Misty and I got to Galveston on Monday, and for the next several days, I kept asking myself “What makes this town work, where’s the money from.” It was obvious that it was a tourist destination, that cruise ships came and went from the harbor, that trains carried loads of concrete and rock.
Just now in this Wikipedia article, I see that before the hurricane, Galveston was the center of trade for Texas and the largest cotton port in the country, and the Strand was “the Wall Street of the South.” After the storm, the construction of the Houston Ship Channel took away its natural advantage, and it never recovered its position of power.
What could have been different? Building the Seawall before the hurricane rather than after. Diversifying shipping to other products and services. Building tourism while in their hayday rather than after. What did Chicago do after the Fire, what did San Francisco do after the Quake?
