How a harbor made a shrimp town
Aransas Pass was organized in 1909 and named for the pass between Mustang and St. Joseph's islands. It is one of the few Texas cities that sits in three counties at once: San Patricio, Aransas and Nueces. Hurricanes hit it hard in the early 1900s, and after the storm of 1919 the town built a seawall and kept going.
Behind that seawall grew Conn Brown Harbor, named for the attorney and former mayor who led the push to expand it. Local accounts recall more than 300 shrimp boats tied up there in its best years. The town has called itself the Shrimp Capital of Texas since at least 1961, and a 1997 Texas House resolution described the harbor as home to the world's largest and most modern shrimping facilities.
The name was never an official state title, and the fleet shrank as imported shrimp took over the market. The newer town slogan is Saltwater Heaven, a nod to the redfish, speckled trout, drum, sheepshead and flounder of Redfish Bay. Shrimpers still use the harbor, though. After Hurricane Harvey damaged 90 percent of the town's buildings in 2017, one shrimper with four decades on the water reopened his seafood market and bought a new 53 foot trawler.
Shrimporee, 78 years on
The first Shrimporee was held in 1948 to celebrate the shrimp industry and what it meant to the town, and it has come back every year since. In spring 2026 there was talk of moving it to a nearby airport, but in May the Chamber and the city agreed to keep the 78th festival at the Shrimporee Grounds on East Johnson Avenue.
The 2026 schedule shows how Aransas Pass likes its shrimp. A shrimp eating contest took the main stage on Saturday afternoon, a boil competition called the Battle of the Boil filled Sunday afternoon, and a culinary stage ran cooking demonstrations and tastings all weekend. Nonprofit booths sold everything from gumbo to fried shrimp baskets, with proceeds going to local projects and scholarships.
