Bolivar Peninsula, Texas Gilchrist Post Office, which opened on September 16, 1950. It closed on July 31, 2010. 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
USS Simon Bolivar (SSBN-641) went to alert status for the first of more than 70 strategic deterrent patrols spanning four decades and three major submarine launched ballistic missile weapons systems (Polaris, Poseidon, Trident). During "Simon Bolivar"s commissioned period she operated in the Atlantic and Mediterranean from three sites: Holy Loch, Scotland; Rota, Spain; and the continental United States, mainly Charleston, SC and Kings Bay, GA. Refit sites consisted of a submarine tender, floating dry dock and complexes of piers and warehouses. At the Scotland site, the entire refit site was anchored out in Holy Loch. "Simon Bolivar"s routine of deterrent patrols out of Charleston