b'P o r tA r a n s a sTop: FDR landing a 77 lb. tarpon, May 1937. Left: FDR toured the Texas Coast aboard the presidential yacht, the USS Potomac. Above: 2-way radio used to communicate by FDR staff. Lower/Left: FDR with LBJ,Above: Hundreds of signed tarpon gill plates posted in the lobby, the oldest from 1897. Inset: FDRs then a congressman. Below: The next generation. signed plate. Below: Famed Tarpon Inn proprietor Ed Cotter, who pioneered sportfishing in America.Just as The Tarpon Inn and the newly-coined town of Port Aransas were peaking inthe presidential yacht, the USS Potomac, inspecting sites for port facilities and military popularity, almost everything was wiped out in the powerful 1916 Hurricane that tookinstallations that included NAS Corpus Christi, on the bay in Flour Bluff.a turn and spared Corpus Christi after striking the island. The inn took a big hit, but EdFDRs fishing trip in Texas was generated into a national media event when it was Cotter persevered and quickly rebuiltit was the Great Storm of 1919 that destroyedchronicled in the May 24, 1937, edition of LIFE magazine. As was the case throughout the inns front two buildings, before wreaking death and destruction on Corpus Chris- his historic presidency, photos of Roosevelt were carefully staged to conceal his con-ti, where almost 1,000 people died or went missing.finement to a wheelchair. Lee-Roy Hoskins explained, The famous oilman Sid Rich-Another rebuild within just a few years was too much for Ed Cotter to endure, and heardson had a house on St. Jos Island and said, They rolled him down the cattle chute sold the property to James Ellis in 1922. Three years later, in 1925, the again-rebuiltto the fishing boat, but nobody saw the wheelchair.Tarpon Inn reopened to guests eager to enjoy the beach and get back on the water. In 1970, around the time that the tarpon started to vanish from the waters of Aransas The hotel was rebuilt by Ellis to withstand the next big storm, reinforced with pilingsPass, James Ellis sold The Tarpon Inn to John J. Miller, followed by a string of owners set in concrete, driven up to 20-feet underground, and extending into the attic. Inthat included James & Douglass Atwill, and ended up with a real estate management 1929, the 43 professional fishing guides who comprised the Port Aransas Boatmansfirm in 2008, whose interested buyer planned to tear the inn down and build condos Association organized the first Tarpon Rodeo, which evolved into the Deep Seaon the land. At that great crossroads in over a century of history for the inn, it was Roundup, one of the oldest and most popular sportfishing tournaments in the U.S. saved, renovated and improved, and even expanded with first-class restaurant and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was undoubtedly the most famous and cele- bar facilities by Lee-Roy Hoskins. Over more than 15 years under his ownership, the brated tarpon angler to visit Port Aransas, where he caught a 5-foot, 1-inch, 71 lb.inn has prospered as a business and stands stronger than ever as the starting place Silver King on May 8, 1937, in the middle of the Great Depression, but years beforeand center of the rich history of Port Aransasand especially as a wonderful place to the breakout of World War II. Roosevelt was on a tour of the Texas Gulf Coast aboardvacation in the most beautiful, family-friendly, seaside village on the Texas Gulf Coast!TheCoastalBend.com THECOASTALBENDMAGAZINE135'