Bolivar Peninsula, Texas Bolivar Peninsula, Texas Bolivar Peninsula ( ) is a census-designated place (CDP) in Galveston County, Texas, United States. The population was 2,417 at the 2010 census. The communities of Port Bolivar, Crystal Beach, Caplen, Gilchrist, and High Island are located on Bolivar Peninsula. The peninsula was named by 1816 for Simón Bolívar, the famed South American political leader involved in the independence movements of Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, and other Latin American nations. The pirates/privateers Jean Laffite and Louis-Michel Aury each used the Bolivar Peninsula as part of the pirate "kingdom" established around the Galveston Bay. The peninsula was part of
Basilica Cathedral of Santa María la Menor . All of the side chapels were not included in the original footprint of the building, rather they were appended with time. The cathedral has a treasury containing retablos, paintings, old woodwork, furniture, sculptures and tombstones. There are pieces that were involved with the funeral proceedings of several colonial archbishops. There is a tombstone of Simon Bolivar, one of the ancestors of the "Liberator" Simon Bolivar. Of note, the remains of Christopher Columbus were once housed at the cathedral, before their final resting place in the Faro a Colon. Basilica Cathedral of Santa María la Menor The Cathedral of Santa