Unattended Death and Biohazard Cleanup in Port Mansfield, TX

Port Mansfield is a census-designated place and working port village on the Lower Laguna Madre in Willacy County on the Texas Gulf Coast, with 319 residents in the 2020 census.

The community began as the fishing camp known as Red Fish Landing before the Willacy County Navigation District condemned 1,760 acres around it in March 1950 and renamed it for State Senator Mansfield of Columbus, who had pushed to extend the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway from Corpus Christi.

The Port of Port Mansfield was founded in 1948 as a shallow-draft facility and today spans about 1,700 acres on the Laguna Madre shore.

A private jettied channel cut through Padre Island in September 1957 was destroyed by storms that November, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers completed the present Port Mansfield Channel with granite jetties in 1962.

The Port Mansfield Channel, also called the East Cut, has divided Padre Island into North and South Padre Island since 1964 and links the port to both the Intracoastal Waterway and the Gulf of Mexico.

During construction of the channel, dredgers cut through the Santa Maria de Yciar, one of three Spanish treasure ships wrecked off Padre Island in 1554, scattering coins and artifacts from the wreck.

Port Mansfield sits on the Lower Laguna Madre, a rare hypersaline lagoon, and the stretch of the lagoon from Port Mansfield to South Padre Island is the largest remaining seagrass habitat in Texas.

The channel's tidal exchange improved habitat for redfish, brown shrimp, flounder and speckled trout, making Port Mansfield a commercial fishing and retirement village that draws sport fishermen from across the country.

The 40-acre Laguna Point Recreation Area gives the village a 500-foot fishing pier, picnic areas and a kayak launch on the laguna.

Port Mansfield's population has swung with its fishing economy, counting 415 residents in 2000, 226 in 2010 and 319 in 2020 across about 5.7 square miles, of which half a square mile is water.