b'P o r tA r a n s a sThe Tarpon Inn: Port As Center of History The famed hotel where the story of Port Aransas began, and where legends emerged, has welcomed new generations of guests for almost 140 years.Its important to save a big piece of history, said Lee-RoyThe purchase of the inn by Mary Hatfield and her son Ed Hoskins, the George West native who purchased The Tar- Cotter, a professional fishing guide, in 1897, marked the pon Inn hotel in 2008. Betty Turner was the real estatebeginning of a golden era for the hotel, and the seaside agent who had it listed for sale, he explained, and an in- town newly renamed Tarpon. It was in Cotters first year terested party planned to tear it down and build condos. as proprietor that the tradition began of posting auto-On September 3rd of that year, Hoskins purchase wentgraphed and dated tarpon gill plates in the inns lobby. through, and the then-122-year-old inn, which stood atOver 7,000 plates were posted, and are still on display to-the start and center of Mustang Island history, was givenday, over the eight decades during which tarpon fishing new life under the care of a new proprietor who was com- thrived in local waters.mitted to its preservation. It wasnt in great condition,Shortly after the turn of the century, and before small fish-said Hoskins, I spent more restoring it than I paid for it! ing boats were motorized, Ed Cotter devised an ingenious Hoskins restoration investment in the historic propertytechnique for meeting the demand for tarpon boats in included leveling and extensive exterior repairs, a newpeak season. Cotter met famed Wall Street heir Edward lobby and common areas, remodeling of all the guestHowland Robinson Colonel Green, whose many tech-roomsandsuiteswithperiodantiquesanduniquelynologicalinterestsincludedthe NaphthaLaunch,the themed decor, and of particular popularity with island- first gas-powered, small vessel that was not subject to theTop: The Tarpon Inn, ers, new life was brought to the restaurant facility thatfederal governments strict requirements for steam-pow- originally built from had set empty for more than a decade in the form ofered boats and ships. Green sent Ed Cotter to a marina inCivil War barracks, has Roosevelts Fine Dining, and soon thereafter the prop- Chicago to learn how to operate the Naphthas. operated since 1886. ertys back building was opened as the 1886 Bar. In short order, Cotter was able to tow up to 20 boats intoAbove/Upper: Sum-The original Tarpon Inn structure was Union Army barrackstarpon fishing waters in what he called a tarpon train,mer season at the Inn, built during the blockade of Aransas Pass that were aban- thusinventingmotorizedsportfishinginAmerica.Bycirca 1930s. Above/doned after the end of the Civil War. The inn opened for1906, Cotter was publishing an annual Tarpon FishingLower: San Antonios guests in 1886, who were almost entirely workers on thediary, which educated guests on fishing in the AransasFrost banking family Mansfield Jetty project, the first of many efforts to stop thePass, and chronicled all the tarpon caught by guests ofwas among the Inns southward erosion of Aransas Pass and allow the growththe inn over the March through November season. Inprominent guests. of the village. When the workers left in 1889, the Tarpon1906, a total of 1,573 tarpon were landed by hundreds ofTom C. Frost is pic-Inns owner, Frank Stephenson, sought to attract touristsguests from across the U.S., the most by one Philip Mayertured as a boy. Right: eager to enjoy the islands beaches and near-shore fishingof New York, who caught a total of 73 over the season.Contemporary guest for tarpon, the legendary silver-scaled gulf prize. L.G. Murphy of Converse, Indiana, landed 24 in one day! room at the Inn.134THECOASTALBENDMAGAZINE TheCoastalBend.com'