Point Bolivar, at the tip of the Bolivar Peninsula facing Galveston Bay, functioned as the military headquarters of the Long Expedition, a private American filibustering venture aimed at wresting Texas from Spanish rule. Dr. James Long, who had earlier declared Texas independence at Nacogdoches in June 1819 only to be driven out by Spanish troops, regrouped his scattered forces at the point in the spring of 1820 and built a small fortification there known as Fort Las Casas. From this base he tried to rebuild support, recruit fresh volunteers from the United States, and plan a renewed push against Spanish authority, styling the effort a Republic of Texas. His wife, Jane Long, remained at the fort through part of this period and later gained fame as the so-called Mother of Texas for enduring hardship on the isolated coast, including a winter largely alone with her young daughter while Long was away. The garrison's hold on the point was tenuous and intermittently occupied until Long sailed south in 1821 to seize La Bahia, where he was ultimately captured and later died in Mexican custody. No settlement or fort structure survives at the site today. Point Bolivar's present-day role is purely commemorative: a Texas historical marker on the peninsula identifies the general location of Fort Las Casas and recounts the expedition's significance as an early, unsuccessful precursor to Anglo-American efforts toward Texas independence.