Mustang Island State Park occupies 3,954 acres on Mustang Island along the Texas coast, preserving five miles of Gulf beachfront and a barrier-island landscape shaped about 2,500 years ago. The island was first inhabited by the Karankawa and was charted by Alonso Álvarez de Pineda in 1519. Its name recalls the wild mustangs that ranged here before late-19th-century ranching displaced them. The site later saw a fort during the Mexican–American War, cattle operations in the 1850s, and Union naval blockade activity offshore during the Civil War. Texas acquired the land in 1972, and the park opened in 1979. Today it protects dunes and diverse coastal wildlife while supporting recreation.