Flour Bluff

The pastry that gave the war its name belonged to a French baker in Tacubaya, Monsieur Remontel, who said Mexican officers had wrecked his shop in 1832 and asked for 60,000 pesos; Mexican accounts say the officers simply refused to pay their bills. In 1838 France demanded 600,000 pesos, blockaded the Gulf coast and took Veracruz, where Santa Anna lost a leg to French grapeshot. A British-brokered peace in March 1839 promised payment. Mexico never paid, and that debt was cited when France intervened again in 1861.

What the plaque says

Flour Bluff In the spring of 1838 France blockaded the coast of Mexico during the Pastry War, so-called because of the mistreatment of french citizens, including pastry chefs, living in Mexico. The strategic location of Corpus Christi Bay led to the revival of smuggling in this area. Supplies were carried overland across the Rio Grande, and the illicit trade flourished as Mexico bought sorely needed goods in Texas. Although president Sam Houston did not wish to antagonize Mexico, Mexican patrols at Corpus Christi offended many Texans. In July, 1838, authorities at Texana heard reports of Mexican activity near the bay. A captured Mexican sea captain said that his government had declared Corpus Christi a port of entry and had dispatched about 400 men to protect it. A summons was issued, calling Texans to rally at Texana, August 7, to drive the invaders from the republic's boundaries. By the time the volunteers reached the area, some of the Mexicans had landed their supplies near the tip of Corpus Christi Bay and returned to Matamoros. The rest scattered, leaving about 100 barrels of flour and parts of a steam engine. The Texans confiscated the usable flour, and other contraband, and the site became known as Flour Bluff. (1976)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Mustang Island State Park — 6.9 mi
  More than five miles of Gulf beach on a barrier island named for wild horses, with beach camping on the sand and a twenty-mile paddling trail on the bay side.
• Mirador de la Flor — 11 mi
  Corpus Christi's bayfront memorial to Selena Quintanilla-Pérez, the Tejano singer from this city, killed in 1995 at twenty-three, visited by about thirty thousand people a year.
• Art Museum of South Texas — 12 mi
  Philip Johnson's 1972 museum on the Corpus Christi bayfront, joined in 2006 by Ricardo Legorreta's Miller Wing, holding more than 2,000 works mostly from Texas and the Americas.
• USS Lexington Museum on the Bay — 12 mi
  An Essex-class carrier of 1943 moored off North Beach, the Blue Ghost that Tokyo Rose kept reporting sunk, and the Navy's training carrier for nearly three decades after.

More markers nearby

• Naval Air Station Corpus Christi — steps away
• German POW Camp at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi — steps away
• Sunshine Cemetery — 4.1 mi
• Ward Island — 4.2 mi