In yet another venture, Peirce and his guide traveled 

 west from Corpus Christi by land, crossed the Nueces 

 River from the south and entered into the upland 

 Nueces floodplain several miles upstream from the 

 delta: 



"Above the junction of the Nueces River with the bay 

 the river is bordered on each side by a strip of timber 

 several miles in width; the Nueces Bottoms. The 

 bottoms are dark and gloomy, every particle of ground 

 not occupied by the large and magnificent trees being 

 covered with shrubs and tall palmetto leaves; while the 

 direct sunlight is almost completely shut out by the long 

 and flowing Spanish moss which covers every tree, 

 weaving their twigs and leaves together in a tangled and 

 matted web. But for the many roots which form a 

 network beneath the surface, all this land would be too 

 bogQi to uphold any living creature, and at the channel's 

 sloping sides, where but few roots are present, it is 

 dangerous to venture away from snags and logs. 



"Our course through the timber was anything but 

 straight, and it was full two hours before the second river 

 was before us. As was expected, here we met with 

 trouble; for although the stream was narrow, it was not 

 supplied with snags upon which we could cross. My 

 partner predicted, that further down its course we should 

 find the water-way much wider and more snagQi. 

 Beating our way through the deep-tangled wildwoodfor 

 two or three miles toward the bay, we reached that part 

 of the swamp where the two rivers united at an acute 

 angle. Here there was an entire change of scene. 

 Instead of a narrow channel bordered by steep banks, 

 there was a spread of mire acres in extent, wherein 

 thousands and thousands of snags and water soaked 

 logs were piled in confusion. More than this, hundreds 

 of snakes were to be seen about and upon the driftwood, 

 where they had come to bask in the sunshine and to feed 

 in the shallow pools. Nearly everything supported at 

 least one reptile, and I thought that before attempting to 

 cross we would have to clear our intended path with 

 powder and shot These serpents were not all of one 

 species, but moccasins were the predominating kind " 

 (Peirce 1894). 



From Peirce's description, the Nueces Delta at the turn 

 of the century began where the heavily forested 



bottomland of the Nueces River ended. The present 

 floodplain, however, is significandy less wooded than 

 what Peirce observed (Figure 2-13), likely as a result of 

 decades of agriculture and ranching activities. The 

 "second river" encountered tn this floodplain was Hkely 

 Hondo Creek, which at present is only a remnant braid 

 of the lower Nueces that joins the river almost 

 perpendicularly just downstream of Calallen Diversion 

 Dam. The description of "thousands and thousands of 

 snags and water soaked logs" at the upper end of the 

 delta gives testimony to the size and effect of the 

 immense floods that must have undoubtedly ravaged 

 the heavily-wooded lower floodplain of the (reservoir- 

 free) Nueces River watershed. 



Changes in Hydrography 



Water Level 



There have been numerous physical changes in Nueces 

 Estuary during the 20th-century that have altered, to 

 some degree or another, the historical response of 

 water level to tides and wind. These modifications 



Figure 2-13: Typical view of the Nueces River 

 floodplain upstream of the Nueces Delta. A flooded 

 Hondo Creel< is visible in the lower right. The photograph 

 was taken on June 26, 1997, during which a flood in the 

 lower watershed had activated secondary channels in the 

 floodplain. The telephone pole in the center of the 

 photograph provides an approximate scale. 



Photo courtesy of U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. 



2-14 ♦ Study Ana 



