Bunker Hidden Under Beach Resort (TX)

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Fort Crockett was a military installation on Galveston Island before being split up after World War II and becoming - among other things - the foundation of the San Luis Resort.

Video on WWII POW Camps in Texas:

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Back in the 70's we use to go inside the bunker...dark and damp, but so awesome. Also we would climb the hill above it...had to be careful because there were cactus everywhere. The 70's were a great time to be a kid in Galveston.

digidrum

My dad is a Texas reclaimed wood master. I wanted to build a round table for my dining room and I asked him about getting some of his wood for the project. He had plenty of old Texas Red Cedar for the top. He asked me how I wanted to make the base and I told him I wanted a pedal stool base. He said I have something I want to show you. He had several really big rafter tails 3 1/2" x 7 1/4". He said they came from Fort Crockett. They have a very cool decorative cut. I am putting the four of them against a center post to make the legs. I have no idea which building they came from but I am looking for pictures to see if I can see them.

I've always seen that concrete bunker and assumed it was housing some equipment for the hotel or something. Cool video.

symetz

Dad flew CAP after the war and fellow pilots here during WWII told him about constantly seeing UBoats. Much later he humored me and stopped for Pill Box tours and the gun mounts on the East end. So many cool memories.

tjjoseph

The battery used to be open to the front and back. I remember begging my Dad to stop on one our trips and he did. We walked inside and it felt cool and you could sense the enormous mass of concrete around you. This was around 1979 or 80. Thanks DAD!!

boboshop

I used to explore that bunker when I was a kid. It had ammo rooms, rooms that looked like a jail Cell with bars. I remember one room with the label above the entrance that said "Hell Room" ( Never found out what that room was used for) It wasn't garatti, It was in Government block lettering, And you could tell it had been on there for years. I am surprised the Hotel has not utilized the bunker for a patio bar, or restaurant.
I certainly would.

patriotjon

In the early 80’s I was one of the group electricians at the Coast Guard base. The homes that were torn down were the quarters for the officers and families. I believe the commanding officers of the floating units were housed there as well. Just behind the hotel were the housing for the senior enlisted personnel and their family.
Because of the age of the housing I was always trying to fix the electrical problems.

leonardwagner

Long before the San Luis hotel was built over them, I hunkered down in the center bunker at Ft. Crockett during a big storm that they reported might be turning into a hurricane. Back then, all there was stopping me was a chain link fence next to the sidewalk on Seawall Blvd., and it had a hole in it. Then I just had to cross over a small overgrown-weed/trash-strewn dirt lot to quickly to get to it before somebody saw me. I hunkered down in those bunkers quite often only because I had found myself homeless in between jobs, now and then. But that one dark and stormy night, I heard a voice that had seemed to say "Get out.., I live here. This is mine". When I turned on my bright-as-day big 9v floodlight to see who I'd be dealing with, all I saw was flat dirt and some trash scraps. There was nobody else down there, I was sure of it. So I just ignore it, thinking my mind had played tricks on me somehow. But the second and third time I distinctively knew exactly what I had heard, "Get out..., I live here. This is mine". I shone my light on every inch down there, thinking someone just had to be hiding down there somehow. I didn't see anyone or anything. So I quickly skedaddled. Instead, I went and hunkered down at the front of the former Buccaneer Hotel, facing the gulf, out in the open where the strong winds kept blowing me back and forth under their tall colonnade(or is it called a "portico". And I never returned to those bunkers ever again either. That was in the mid 70's.

BeeFunKnee

Great history! I never noticed the fortified walls/batteries. Thanks for the info.

briand

Great new episode, I just drove past there last weekend, keep it up!

HoustonHistoricRetail

In the 70's we used to drive by the bunker. They turned it into a snake pit attraction. As kids we could only imagine what was inside.

workablob

This is fascinating! I never knew those buildings were from an old army encampment. I love the old photos you found.

whatif

I remember as a kid me and my family would always go to the ihop right next to it. I wonder if it’s still there?? I remember looking across the street and saying how that was the most beautiful hotel I ever saw on the seawall. It’s nice to see it still holds true today.

eden

Up until the 1970s those bunkers were open. People used to hang out there smoking pot. There’s another bunker toward the end of the east seawall. It’s out in the marsh behind the seawall. It was another popular hangout for people smoking pot and drinking. They were always peaceful gatherings abd a good place to meetup with people.

MovieMakingMan

The guns housed in those batteries were 18 inches in diameter and protected much of the gulf costal US during WWII. There was 1 other battery on the east end of the island & 1 across the channel on Bolivar Peninsula.

John-gurw