It was the largest city in the state, with the moniker "Gateway to the West".After being chartered as a city in 1836, Galveston became a mecca for business. Its natural harbor made it easy to import and export goods out of the state.
"It really was a point where things came here, then went by boat and wagon and then later by train into the center-land of Texas, even up into the center part of the United States and the mid-west," Jones said. "That sort of transport and movement of goods and services and people was really critical to the development of the west."
From 1870 to the 1890s, Galveston boomed because of its position on the Gulf. This was the place where people came to do business, and the historic Strand became the Wall Street of the South. "It made people wonder, do I really want to invest in this island that had this tragedy and had such loss. And so it was an important shift in the region, I think you’d have to say, and certainly in the state," Jones said.