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50-489: The Boca Chica area has seen various developments over the course of its history. These include Mexican land grants , Mexican and American ranches , a battlefield of the American Civil War , a 1920s beach resort, and a state park (Boca Chica State Park); additionally, a small settlement named Boca Chica Village existed in the area from 1960 to 2020. In recent years, the area has become more widely known due to being

100-578: A royal charter to the Virginia Company of London , an English joint-stock company founded to colonize Virginia . Similar schemes were later used when royal charters were granted by the Crown to English proprietary colonies in Rhode Island, Connecticut and Pennsylvania. Some settlers were given land grants known as headrights , encouraging them to migrate to North America. Similar systems were used during

150-516: A '21st century Spaceport ' ". In March 2021, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk more formally announced plans to incorporate a new city in the area of Boca Chica to be called " Starbase, Texas ". Starbase would include the existing Boca Chica Village, the SpaceX test site and launch site, and more of the surrounding Boca Chica area. Starbase is expected to include the land in Boca Chica Village proper—where both

200-456: A Confederate camp near Fort Brown for unknown reasons. The Union attackers captured a few prisoners, but the following day, the attack was repulsed near Palmito Ranch by Colonel John Salmon Ford , and the battle resulted in a Union defeat. Union forces were surprised by artillery, said to have been supplied by the French Army occupying the nearby Mexican town of Matamoros . Boca Chica Beach

250-765: A commercial enterprise. As of October 2024, the Board was awaiting feedback on the proposal from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Texas Geographic Names Committee. Mexican land grants in Texas A land grant is a gift of real estate —land or its use privileges—made by a government or other authority as an incentive, means of enabling works, or as a reward for services to an individual, especially in return for military service . Grants of land are also awarded to individuals and companies as incentives to develop unused land in relatively unpopulated countries;

300-753: A day's wages for an unskilled laborer. In 1788 the British claimed all of eastern Australia as its own, and formed the colony of New South Wales in Australia. The land was claimed as crown land . Over time, it granted land to officers and released convicts. Males were allowed 30 acres (12 ha), plus 20 acres (8.1 ha) if they were married, and 10 acres (4 ha) additional per child. Instructions were issued on 20 August 1789 that non-commissioned marine officers were to be entitled to 100 acres (40 ha) additional and privates to 50 acres (20 ha) additional. Governor Macquarie canceled land grants issued during

350-512: A rocket-powered human flight in 1933. As part of a skydiving exhibition over the Del Mar Resort on Boca Chica, he jumped out of an airplane in "an attempted manned rocket backpack flight. He disappeared into the clouds and was never seen again." Swan had previously set records in 1931 with the first American rocket-powered aircraft flight over Atlantic City, New Jersey , and the "first air-launched rocketplane flight" in 1932. The completion of

400-546: Is dredged to handle ships of 13 m (42 ft) draft at high tide, and can support ships up to 260 m (850 ft) overall length and a 41 m (135 ft) beam . The port serves South Texas and, via rail connections, much of northeast Mexico including the large industrial city of Monterrey in Nuevo León state. The Port of Brownsville is governed by the Brownsville Navigation District ,

450-834: Is part of the 10,680-acre (43.2 km) Boca Chica tract of the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge . The tract is a former Texas state park located in the Boca Chica Subdelta separated from Mexico by the Rio Grande. The park was acquired by the state of Texas and opened in May 1994. The state park land is now managed by the US federal government as part of the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge. The portion of

500-525: The 1933 hurricane . Although the owners partially rebuilt and continued to operate during the 1930s, the remaining buildings were turned into a base for the US Coast Guard during World War II . As a result of the Great Depression and hurricane damage, the owners did not reopen the resort after the end of the war. An older map of Boca Chica shows the existence of a ship passage— Boca Chica Pass —from

550-454: The American Civil War . During the 19th century, various states (or even smaller units), as well as the federal government, made extensive land grants to encourage internal improvements , usually to improve transportation, such as construction of bridges and canals. The Land Grant Act of 1850 provided for 3.75 million acres of land to the states to support railroad projects; by 1857 21 million acres of public lands were used for railroads in

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600-563: The Boca Chica Pass Bridge , went over the pass to connect the road from Brownsville to Brazos Island. Storm movement of sands and tidal flats, principally from the 1933 and 1967 hurricanes have closed off the pass and connected Brazos Island to the mainland, although water still exits the southeast end of South Bay and flows beside SH 4 into the Gulf under certain weather conditions, particularly extended days of southerly winds which build up

650-576: The Cumberland Road turnpike , the Lehigh Canal , the Schuylkill Canal and the many railroads that tied the young United States together. Roman soldiers were given pensions ( praemia ) at the end of their service including cash or land. Augustus fixed the amount in 5 AD at 3,000 denarii and by the time of Caracalla it had risen to 5,000 denarii. One denarius was roughly equivalent to

700-589: The Dutch colonization of the Americas . As English colonial law developed, headrights became patents and a patentee had to improve the land. Under this doctrine of planting and seeding , the patentee was required to cultivate one acre (4,000 m ) of land and build a small house on the property, otherwise the patent would revert to the government. Between 1783 and 1821, Spain offered land grants to anyone who settled in their colonies of Florida and Louisiana . When

750-461: The FAA —began to request village residents to go outside their homes during any tests that involve loading of propellant fuel, due to perceived danger from shock-wave induced broken windows in the event of an explosion. SpaceX made an initial orbital test flight of the entire two-stage Starship system in 2023. The first flight test flew on April 20, 2023, and ended after approximately two minutes when

800-649: The Gulf to transit goods to the mainland north of the Rio Grande . Historical artifacts of human usage from those eras remained as of 2013 illustrating road use during the Mexican–American War (circa 1846) and railroad use during the American Civil War . Two historical artifacts. Cypress pilings from a circa 1846 floating bridge and the "Palmetto Pilings" from a circa -1865 railroad bridge were both yet extant in 2013. Both are located within 0.5 mi (0.80 km) of

850-624: The Mexico – United States border . The deep water Brownsville Ship Channel , to/from the Gulf of Mexico , passes between Padre Island and Brazos Island , Barrier islands of the Gulf Coast. The channel also passes the old harbor of Los Brazos de Santiago, the landing place of the Spanish explorer Alonso Álvarez de Pineda in 1519 and subsequent colonizers from the Viceroyalty of New Spain . The channel

900-527: The Mississippi River valley, and the stage was set for more substantial Congressional subsidies to future railroads. Universities were also beneficiaries of land grants. All five of the transcontinental railroads in the United States were built using land grants. The Morrill Land-Grant Acts of 1862 and 1890 provided for the establishment of land-grant colleges . There is general agreement that

950-708: The Ordinance of 1784 , which carved out ten prospective states west of the Appalachian Mountains and established the basis for the Public Land Survey System . The Land Ordinance of 1785 provided a method for settling that land and establishing government institutions, which became federal land policy until 1862. The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 established the Northwest Territory , pursuant to which homesteading settlers could buy land, and certain land

1000-673: The Rum Rebellion of 1808–09, although some were later restored. Land grants started to be phased out when private tendering was introduced, and stricter limits were placed on grants without purchase. The instructions to Governor Brisbane were issued on 17 July 1825. From 9 January 1831, all land was to be sold at public auction . There were also significant land grants in the Swan River Colony (Western Australia), and in Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) from 1803. The Hudson's Bay Company

1050-569: The 16th and 17th centuries involved the confiscation of some or all the land of Irish lords and its grant to settlers ("planters") from England or Scotland. The English Parliament's Adventurers' Act 1640 and Act for the Settlement of Ireland 1652 specifically entitled "Adventurers" who funded the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland to lands seized from the leaders of the Irish Rebellion of 1641 and

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1100-499: The American Civil War . It was fought 12–13 May 1865, on the banks of the Rio Grande east of current Brownsville, Texas, and a few miles from the seaport of Los Brazos de Santiago. Union and Confederate forces in southern Texas had been observing an unofficial truce since the beginning of 1865, but Union Colonel Theodore H. Barrett , newly assigned to command an all-black unit, and never having been in combat, ordered an attack on

1150-407: The Boca Chica Village, while the launch complex would be located two miles to the east. Limited construction began that year, but more extensive construction activities did not begin until approximately 2018. By May 2018, the site was expected to be used exclusively for launches of the SpaceX second-generation fully-reusable launch vehicle (which was eventually named SpaceX Starship in late 2018), and

1200-572: The Gulf into the South Bay of the Laguna Madre, several miles south of Brazos Santiago Pass, just north of the current SpaceX orbital launch site. This was from the time when Brazos Island, the duned area east of South Bay, was an island separated from the mainland. From 1846 to 1879, the King & Kennedy Steamboat service made calls at a landing in the South Bay. For sometime in the 1900s, a road bridge, called

1250-760: The Northwest Territory (and later smaller areas, such as the Indiana Territory , the Illinois Territory and the Wisconsin Territory ) and as well as the Platte Purchase in Missouri. Eligibility for the warrants expanded over the years through new Congressional acts of 1842, 1850, 1852 and 1855 to the point where they could be sold or given to descendants. The warrant program was discontinued before

1300-473: The Rio Grande Valley in 1917. The resort had 20 daycabins available for rent, a bathhouse, and a ballroom. It was quite successful resort until 1933, when a hurricane destroyed most of the buildings. The remaining buildings were turned into a base for the US Coast Guard during World War II . As a result of the Great Depression and the hurricane damage, the owners of the property were not able to reopen

1350-485: The SpaceX test and orbital launch facilities are located two miles further east, adjacent to Boca Chica Beach. In 2012, SpaceX named the Boca Chica area as a possible location for the construction of their future private commercial launch site. In August 2014, SpaceX announced that they had selected the area as the location for their South Texas Launch Site , and that their "control center" would actually be on land within

1400-522: The Super Heavy booster lost control of its engines, while still over the designated flight test corridor. The second flight lifted off the pad on November 18, 2023, and successfully achieved stage separation, though both the booster and ship were terminated later in the flight. As early as August 2020, SpaceX indicated it was looking to build a resort in South Texas with the intent to turn "Boca Chica into

1450-654: The Texas border. During the Mexican period of California (and other portions of Mexican territories inherited from New Spain ), the Mexican government granted individuals hundreds of ranchos or large tracts of land. The ranchos established land-use patterns that remain recognizable in the California of today. Controversy over community land grant claims in New Mexico persist to this day. Future President Thomas Jefferson crafted

1500-596: The United States acquired that land by treaties, it agreed to honor all valid land grants. As a result, years of litigation ensued over the validity of many of the Spanish land grants. Spain and Mexico used the same system of offering land grants along the Rio Grande River near the Texas/Mexico border. These grants were given to help colonization of the area, initially by the Spanish crown, and later by Mexican authorities nationals, and strengthen frontier towns along

1550-594: The United States' federal policy of offering land grants had a positive impact on economic development in the 19th century. Port of Brownsville The Port of Brownsville is a deepwater seaport in Brownsville , at the southern tip of Texas . The port is the southern terminus of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway . The port is located near the river mouth of the Rio Grande and Lower Rio Grande Valley plain, only 8 miles (13 km) north of

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1600-445: The area created a strong interest in land speculation. Special trains were dispatched to bring land speculators to the area and by the early 1920s as many as 200 people a day were coming to see the land. One of the more notable land speculation ventures was the construction of the Del Mar Resort on Boca Chica Beach. Advertised as being on the same latitude as Miami , the resort was built in the 1920s by Colonel Sam Robinson, who moved to

1650-486: The area. In 1904, the St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico Railway was completed to Brownsville, which "opened the area to northern farmers who began to come to the area at the turn of the 20th century. They cleared the land, built irrigation systems and roads, and introduced large-scale truck farming and citrus farming. The new farming endeavors began a new period of prosperity around Brownsville." The availability of cheap land in

1700-413: The beach near the eastern terminus of Texas State Highway 4 . In the late 19th century, much of the arable land on the subdelta peninsula of Boca Chica was used for ranching . Historical ranches include Tulosa Ranch, Palmito Ranch, White's Ranch, and Cobb's Ranch. No historical Native American usage is known, and consultation with a number of tribes in 2013 identified no verbal record of native use of

1750-415: The beach north of the current Texas State Highway 4—on what was historically Brazos Island , but is now connected to the mainland—was known as Del Mar Beach prior to the second half of the 20th century. This area was the location of the successful Del Mar Resort in the 1920s and early 1930s, which had 20 daycabins for rent along with a bathhouse and a ballroom. Many of the resort buildings were destroyed by

1800-562: The ensuing Confederacy . In New Zealand two private railway companies were offered land grants to build a railway, though both were eventually taken over by the government and incorporated into the government-owned New Zealand Railways Department . During England's colonization of the Americas , the English Crown gave land grants to encourage the foundation of overseas possessions in North America . King James I of England granted

1850-476: The federal government to officially recognise "Starbase" as a place name. In May 2024, Cameron County submitted a formal proposal to the U.S. Board on Geographic Names , which was publicly posted on their website in July 2024. However, at the May 2024 meeting of the Board's Domestic Names Committee, doubts were expressed over whether the proposed name violates the Board's policy against recognising names intended to promote

1900-637: The federal income tax was not established until the 20th century. Starting with the American Revolutionary War , veterans often received land grants instead of backpay or other remuneration. Bounty-land warrants, often for 160 acres, were issued to veterans from 1775 to 1855, thus including veterans of the American Revolutionary War, the War of 1812 and the Mexican–American War , as well as various Indian wars . The land grants helped settle

1950-561: The history of the area. A land transportation route existed across Boca Chica in the 19th century, starting at the Mexican port of Brazos Santiago , north of Boca Chica, and heading inland to the Rio Grande Valley area that would later become Brownsville. The shallow-water sail port at Brazos Santiago was used by sailing ships that used Brazos Santiago Pass to enter the South Bay of Laguna Madre —a shallow, hypersaline , natural bay—from

2000-547: The launch complex was no longer planned to become a third launch site for Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy . Flight testing of the Starship second stage , with the newly designed Raptor rocket engine, began in 2019 and has continued into 2023. With the village only a few miles from the test site, in August 2019, Cameron County officials—following requirements set by the US regulatory authority ,

2050-400: The legacy residential community and the SpaceX build site are located—as well as the land where the SpaceX test site and launch site is located, and more since Starbase is to be a municipality "much larger than Boca Chica." By April 2021, SpaceX was referring to the area as "Starbase" on their test flight webcasts, and Musk was openly encouraging people to move to "Starbase". and projected that

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2100-472: The population could grow by several thousand people in the next several years. Starbase had also become a common term for the area amongst SpaceX fans and followers. As of April 2021, the company had not yet submitted the requisite paperwork to initiate the city formation process, and The Dallas Morning News reported that the "planning appears to be in the early stages". In January 2024, Cameron County and Brownsville officials both passed resolutions requesting

2150-475: The port and the dredging of the Brownsville Ship Channel created a new human-made northern boundary of the Boca Chica peninsula. It cut the peninsula off from any land transport routes except from Brownsville to the east, which was also the transportation railhead for Boca Chica to the rest of the country. The Battle of Palmito Ranch is considered by some as the final battle of the conclusion of

2200-498: The process of awarding land grants are not limited to the countries named below. The United States historically gave out numerous land grants as homesteads to individuals desiring to make a farm. The American Industrial Revolution was guided by many supportive acts of legislatures (for example, the Main Line of Public Works legislation of 1863) promoting commerce or transportation infrastructure development by private companies, such as

2250-582: The resort after the end of the war. The devastating 1933 hurricane spurred the Works Progress Administration to take part in the dredging and construction of the Port of Brownsville , a venture that the city had been trying to complete since 1928. The port was officially opened in 1936. During the years that the ship channel was under construction, a nationally known rocketplane entrepreneur, William Swan , disappeared over Boca Chica as he attempted

2300-482: The site of Starbase , a major facility of aerospace company SpaceX for the development, manufacturing and testing of its rockets. Starbase is envisioned to one day serve as the primary launch and recovery facility for SpaceX's Starship launch vehicle. Boca Chica means "small mouth of the river" in Spanish, as the Rio Grande's flow is modest, and in droughts, the mouth of the river may disappear altogether. Transportation across Boca Chica has been an important part of

2350-436: The water level at the south end of the bay at high tide allowing limited flows of bay water back to the Gulf via the highway cut through the dunes. Boca Chica Village is the name of a small unincorporated community as of 2014 located on Texas State Highway 4, about 22 mi (35 km) east of Brownsville. It was formed in 1967 under another name as a land development project, and a community of about 30 ranch-style houses

2400-405: Was built before the settlement was devastated by Hurricane Beulah later that same year, which greatly affected the progress of the would-be town. In 2014, the village and surrounding area were chosen by SpaceX as the location for the construction of a spaceflight build-and-launch facility. Much of the SpaceX build facility is located on land that was previously a part of Boca Chica Village, while

2450-628: Was incorporated in 1670 with the grant of Rupert's Land by King Charles II of England ; this vast territory was greater than one third the area of Canada today. Following the Rupert's Land Act in the British Parliament, Rupert's Land was sold in 1869 to the newly formed Canadian Government for the nominal sum of £300,000. Land grants were an incentive for the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway . The Plantations of Ireland in

2500-420: Was set aside for public schools and other purposes. The federal government acquired additional lands by treaties with various Native American tribes, such as the 1833 Treaty of Chicago , by which many eastern tribes agreed to settle across the Mississippi River . Revenues from public land purchases were a major source of funding for the federal government through the 19th century, along with tariff revenues, since

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