Rebuilding a Beautiful Gulf Shore Park
This part of the website is a place to document the rebuilding and rebirth of Galveston Beach State Park. The park land itself is fine and always was. Barrier islands are dynamic and Gavleston Island has been experiencing constant change long before there was a city of Galveston or a United States. What was destroyed, and why most people will say the park was devestated in 2008, was the infrastructure that helped people to visit and enjoy the park property. Here we can document how our use and rebuilding of the park's amenities are created.
Just after Hurricane Ike destroyed most of the structures in the park the state stated it had no idea what would be done in the park. There were indications the park would be left to become more of a wildlife sanctuary than be a place to host visitors for camping and enjoying visits to the beach and bay. One of the most curious and surprisingly uplifting developments was the response of the Friends of Galveston Island State Park. Over the course of the first year they organized parties of volunteers to clean up the park. Many hours of physical labor were required to pick up all the debri that was left after the storm. Not only did volunteers begin to take on this job, they completed it in a way that probably opened up the state's eyes that the park was worth rebuilding. People wanted to be involved with the park and cared enough to spend a lot of time and effort to clean it up.
After the park was cleaned up the state began to restore some access. This was an amazing development is it took only six months to go from not being sure what, if anything, would be done with the park to six months later having the park reopen. Access was limited but clearly even that initial level of public use was an abrupt turn around for the state. Again, volunteers with the Friends of Galveston Island State Park were integral in the process of reopening the park. Weekend programs were offered, some camping access was again provided and slowly people were beginning to be able to use and enjoy the park.
Since then....
October 2009
The state released a press release that extends their call for hiring a private contractor to develop a plan for building new park infrastructure. The idea the state is hoping to move forward with is to create state of the art facilities that are as friendly to users as they are to the environment. Read the full press release.
