Frequently Asked (and Answered) Questions

While the current Texas portion of the Gulf of Mexico is rimmed by major cities like Beaumont, Houston, Corpus Christi, and Brownsville 250 miles to the southeast, at one time (110 million years ago), this location at the Purple Shack Makers Gallery was inundated by the Gulf of Mexico due to rising sea levels and a lower ground level.

The high ridge you are standing upon is an erosional remnant of limestone layers deposited at the bottom of an ancient, shallow tropical sea. Shells, corals, and sponges lived and died here. Upon death, their skeletons were transformed into calcium carbonate sand that was moved back-and-forth by nearshore currents. The cross bedding in this rock attests to these sea currents.

This high place (locally known as the Kirschberg Ridge) forms the eastern fringe of the Edwards Plateau, named after the flat-lying Edwards Group of rocks. These rocks attest to this ancient expansion of the Gulf of Mexico. The ultimate extent of this inland sea stretched from the Purple Shack, northward into Canada and merged with the Arctic Ocean.