In 1909, real estate developers E.O. Burton and A.H. Danforth launched a land promotion scheme to take advantage of available land in Aransas Pass. They hired journalist W.H. Vernor to produce the "Aransas Pass Progress," which promoted Aransas Pass and the pending land sale across the country by U.S. Mail. Promoter A.D. Powers was hired to handle the sale carefully so it would not be seen as a lottery by the postal department. Six thousand tickets, each representing a town lot, were sold for $100 each. Ticket holders were then to come to Aransas Pass to bid on lots, with bids not to exceed $100 so the tickets could be exchanged directly for lots. Nearly all 6,000 lots were sold during the auction sales in December 1909. Trouble arose when postal inspectors who had secured tickets purposely overbid, muddling the sale and leading to several legal battles. Despite that, the Great Land Lottery of 1909 brought substantial growth to Aransas Pass, and the money collected in overbids went into a trust that eventually funded public and school libraries, including the one at this site.