Area Info >> Gilchrist
March 13, 2010
Gilchrist Texas
Gilchrist Texas is an unincorporated residential community and beachfront resort along State Highway 87, located seventeen miles east of Port Bolivar on the Bolivar Peninsula. Located in Galveston County, this community was named for Gibb Gilchrist who relocated and rebuilt the rail line from High Island to Port Bolivar.

In 1950, a post office was opened at Gilchrist. The Gilchrist Post Office is at 2259 Highway 87 Gilchrist, TX 77617. Gilchrist residents are zoned to schools in the High Island Independent School District.

The Gilchrist area has a bright future being the closest oceanfront resort area to the Beaumont Port Arthur energy capital, where over 10 billion dollars in investment capital for new energy and chemical plants has been approved.

Rollover Pass GilchristOfficials from the Beaumont Chamber of Commerce predict over 2000 jobs will be created with engineers and new staff relocating to the area from all over the world.

A notable feature of the community is the Rollover Pass, which divides Bolivar Peninsula as well as Gilchrist and carries water between East Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. It is regarded among sportsmen as a very popular fishing location in Texas with some the largest fish in the state.

Rollover Pass was a natural pass that had been closed until 1955, when it was opened by the Texas Game and Fish Commission as part of its efforts to preserve and improve fish and wildlife resources. Several businesses in the community operate to furnish necessities for permanent residents as well as tourists.

Rollover Pass, also known as Rollover Fish Pass, is a strait 200 feet wide, five feet deep, and more than 1,600 feet long across Bolivar Peninsula; it links Rollover Bay and East Bay with the Gulf of Mexico in extreme southeastern Galveston County (at 29°00' N, 94°30' W).

The pass was opened in 1955 by the Texas Game and Fish Commission to perpetuate state fish and wildlife resources and improve local fishing conditions; it introduces sufficient quantities of seawater into East Bay to increase bay water salinity, promote growth of submerged vegetation, and help marine fish to and from spawning and feeding areas in the bay.

The pass is named for the practice of ship captains from the days of Spanish rule through prohibition, who, to avoid the Galveston customs station, rolled barrels of import or export merchandise over that part of the peninsula.

Rollover Pass
Rollover Pass is legendary for fishing


Gilchrist Beach Walkway at Audubon Village
Gilchrist oceanfront walkway on the geotube protected beachfront

US Army Corps of Engineers Geotube Protects Beachfront
The most successful project implemented by the Government to protect and enhance the Texas Coastline is on the Bolivar Peninsula in the Rollover Pass area in Gilchrist.

Gilchrist Beach Protection Geotube Already new resort developments are being constructed, including Audubon Village. 

The homes there are hurricane resistant and are built in a factory in Gilchrist.

The Galveston District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) performs routine maintenance dredging of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway that includes yearly dredging of the stretch near Rollover Pass.

This project joins CEPRA and Galveston County funds with the USACE dredging cycle to use the dredged material beneficially to nourish the public beaches on the east and west side of the pass.

The Corps of Engineers installed a geo-tube on the coastline extending five miles on each side of rollover pass and nourishes the beach over the geo-tube each year by using materials dredged to maintain the intracoastal waterway.

The project provides protection of public beach and public infrastructure using a natural beach restoration technique. The project uses the cost-effective and beneficial use of dredged material. Project Cost: $793,448

Gilchrist Geotube Map

Gilchrist Hurricane Resistant Homes
Hurricane resistant homes built in Gilchrist


USACE

The residents of Gilchrist
would like to publicly thank
the US Army Corps of Engineers
and the State of Texas
for their brilliant work
to protect and enhance
our beaches!

Big News for the Gilchrist Area
Dallas based Provident Realty Advisors purchased 2,795 acres of prime beach front property on the northern tip of the Bolivar Peninsula between Gilchrist and High Island in Galveston County.

See Video

The property, known as Cade Ranch, is considered one of the largest remaining beachfront properties on Texas' Gulf Coast, according to a news release from CB Richard Ellis announcing the sale. The site has more than 13,000 feet of frontage on the Gulf of Mexico and Intracoastal Waterway

Hawes estimates between 30 and 40 percent of the property can be developed and plans to style the development architecturally after Florida's Seaside, a neo-traditional resort community in the Florida Panhandle.

Florida Seaside
Seaside Florida

Bruce Endendyk and John Endendyk of CB Richard Ellis represented Crown Team Texas, the sellers of the land and also the owners of the Audubon Village Resort and several other new developments on the Bolivar Peninsula including Laguna Harbor in Port Bolivar and Seagrass Resort in Caplen.

The property is next to the new Audubon Village Resort in Gilchrist and is literally untouched beachfront property ideally suited for development given that the nearby Beaumont Part Arthur energy capital has 10 billion in new energy plants being developed and 1000s of new jobs which will create new demand for beachfront property in that area.

The property being located in the Gilchrist - High Island area is the closest resort quality beachfront property to the Beaumont Port Arthur area. Already the sales team at Audubon Village resort in Gilchrist is seeing interest from engineers relocating to the area for the new energy plants.
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Gilchrist Ocean View

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The Bolivar Chamber of Commerce
building a better bolivar

click here to contact us
1750 Hwy 87 - PO Box 1170
Crystal Beach, Texas 77650
New Number 409-684-5940

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