Brownsville port endures sea changes in economy over 75 years

Louis Cobolini, an Italian immigrant, commercial fisherman and labor leader who championed the idea of a deepwater port and ship channel at Brownsville for nearly two decades, died before he could see his dream realized.

In 1867, forced out of his native country after fighting on the losing side against Austria during the Wars of Italian Independence, Cobolini immigrated to Galveston, where he made a living first as a fish peddler and then as a commercial fisherman with a fleet of boats.

In the 1870s and 1880s, Cobolini helped secure federal money for a deepwater port and channel at Galveston, then worked his way down the coast, breathing life into ports at Port Lavaca, Rockport, Aransas Pass and Corpus Christi. In 1907, he relocated his fishing operations to Port Isabel and took up residence in Brownsville, where he became involved in local politics, eventually serving as alderman and city commissioner.

By 1910, Cobolini was secretary of the Brownsville Chamber of Commerce, a position he used to argue the necessity of a deepwater port and ship channel in Brownsville. He helped create the Brownsville Waterways Association in 1911, and promoted the Brownsville port project on technical and political fronts. Cobolini lobbied for federal funds for the project through Congressman John Nance Garner, an East Texas native who would later serve as Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s vice president. Garner eventually succeeded in securing federal support for the project, though it was a hard-fought battle spanning years.

In 1927, the Cameron County Commissioners Court hired Cobolini to once again take the lead in promoting the project. In February 1928, after conducting a rainy tour of the proposed ship channel site for an Army Corps of Engineers team, Cobolini came down with pneumonia and died before the month was out. He was 84 years old.

‘Father’ of the port

A few months later, Congress green-lighted the Brownsville deepwater port project. The Great Depression slowed things down for a few years, but in May 1936 the crowds swarmed for the grand opening of Brownsville’s newly dug deepwater port and ship channel. Cobolini’s granddaughter was crowned “Miss Port of Brownsville” as part of the festivities, while her grandfather went on to be called the “father of the Port of Brownsville.”

Carl S. Chilton, historian and author of the book “Port of Brownsville: 60 Years of Service,” said that while other figures were certainly instrumental in the birth of the port, it’s not inappropriate to assign “paternity” to Cobolini.

“Cobolini was given a lot of credit and I guess rightfully deserved it for what he did to get things started,” Chilton said. “He laid the groundwork I think to get the support of the Corps of Engineers. By the time 1928 came he had convinced them. If you go back to 1915, the Rio Grande Valley was such a small population and all, the Corps probably didn’t think it was justified to spend the money. By 1928 the Valley had grown quite a bit. It pretty well convinced them it was a worthwhile project.”

If Cobolini deserves much of the credit for establishing the port, F.W. Hofmokel, Brownsville’s first port director, is remembered as the man who nurtured it into an economic powerhouse. Hofmokel held the job from 1936 until his death by drowning at South Padre Island in 1965. Chilton said losing him was a “major blow to Brownsville.”

“He was just a guy that was highly respected in the community,” he said. “People would talk to him about all kinds of things. In addition to the port, he was recognized as a great booster of Brownsville and had a lot of good judgment about all kinds of things.”

Hofmokel

Hofmokel was a native of Germany and veteran of that country’s navy during World War I. He was investigated by the FBI and temporarily forced to step down as port director during World War II after a German U-boat torpedoed a ship leaving the Brownsville ship channel. Hofmokel, who turned out not to be in league with the enemy, was allowed to return as port director in 1944. Germany by that time was busy losing the war and had stopped sending U-boats to the Gulf to harass shipping traffic.

The Port of Brownsville was created to accommodate what once was a thriving agricultural sector in the Rio Grande Valley. The port handled more than 250,000 tons of cargo in its first three years of operation. Cotton, citrus and lumber were typical commodities. Banana boats from Central America were a familiar sight. Domestic and Mexican cotton eventually took over, and by the mid-1950s the Port of Brownsville was the top cotton port in the country. The port likewise was home to a mighty shrimping industry that peaked in the 1950s and 1960s but declined in subsequent decades. Agriculture has long since ceased to be the port’s bread and butter. Today the focus is on products like steel, ore, petroleum and various liquid cargos.

“Methods of transportation change,” Chilton said. “Then (shippers) will find another port that’s closer to their market. It’s always a changing situation.”

The bridge to nowhere

A black mark on the port’s recent history was the “bridge to nowhere” debacle, in which port commissioners spent $21.4 million over 12 years on a road and rail bridge to Mexico that were never built. A 2004 investigation by The Brownsville Herald found that neither the city of Matamoros nor the state of Tamaulipas considered the bridge a priority. Only $1 million of the money, most of which came from taxpayer-approved bonds, was ever recovered, while the lead engineer in the failed project was absolved of responsibility after a grand jury investigation.

“It was very controversial,” Chilton said. “It’s faded away, but it was pretty hot issue for two or three years.”

The port appears to be more soundly managed these days and enjoys a well-established cargo connection to Mexico, notably Monterrey, he said. As the post-agriculture Port of Brownsville scans the horizon for new commercial opportunities while enduring fallout from the recession, the most serious economic threat Chilton can imagine is if Mexico built a new port down the coast — though he thinks that’s unlikely.

“Mexico keeps making noises about building a port,” Chilton said. “I assume that Monterrey uses the Port of Brownsville as opposed to the Port of Tampico. If they had a first-class port in Matamoros, that would be a big problem, but it seems like to me that’s not going to happen. They don’t have a bay there. They’d have to be out practically in the Gulf, and that’s not a very good place to build a port.”