b'P o r tA r a n s a sPort As Rich History on DisplayLeft: Effort to open Aransas Pass from the Gulf to C.C. Bay. Right: Port As era of Tarpon fishing chronicled.Port A founders. Among the displays at the museum are biographic profiles of those Two centuries of history exhibited at Port A Museum very founders who had the greatest impact on the evolution of Mustang Island. Since the Karankawa Indians were confronted by Spanish explorers led by AlonsoVisitors enjoy the exhibit on the foregone tarpon fishing era of the first half of the lvarez de Pineda in 1519, the ones who named Corpus Christi Bay, the northern20th Century, including the rod case given to Barney Farley by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, in 1937. A special exhibit chronicles the long struggle to open tip of Mustang Island where the island splits at Aransas Pass (the channel, not theAransas Pass for shipping through Corpus Christi Bay to the city, which is now home town) has been a natural settlement point for those intrigued by its vast natural as- to the most profitable port in the United States. One of the most fascinating dis-sets. In 2008, the Port Aransas Preservation and Historical Association opened theplays at the museum is the Fresnel lens from Port As 1865 lighthouse that guided towns museum with a collection of photos and artifacts donated by descendants ofmariners for almost a century. 101 East Brundrett at North AlisterTheCoastalBend.com THECOASTALBENDMAGAZINE131'