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Older Guy Question: Lester Roloff's Place on Laguna Madre

9K views 35 replies 18 participants last post by  floatingcabin1 
#1 ·
A question for you older guys-

Lester Roloff had a place on the Laguna Madre - barges and cabins that he kept wayward kids on.

Do any of you remember exactly where it was located?

For you younger guys, Lester would beat the devil out (or Jesus into) you at his various homes for kids.
 
#4 ·
I heard of it. And yes it was in that area. I also read it was an abusive environment and Lester was a sicko, much like other cult leaders who were
evil masqueraded as Christians. Many leading Christian authorities have written that evil people will attempt to hide themselves in the Christian Church. Don't get me wrong, because I consider myself to be Christian in spite of my shortcomings. Give me mercy, not justice. I Plead The Blood!
www.solarscreenguys.com
www.houstonshutterpro.com
 
#15 ·
I heard of it. And yes it was in that area. I also read it was an abusive environment and Lester was a sicko, much like other cult leaders who were
evil masqueraded as Christians. Many leading Christian authorities have written that evil people will attempt to hide themselves in the Christian Church. Don't get me wrong, because I consider myself to be Christian in spite of my shortcomings. Give me mercy, not justice. I Plead The Blood!
www.solarscreenguys.com
www.houstonshutterpro.com
People who believe anything they read are the sickos. Lester Roloff did not maintain an abusive environment, unless you count depriving kids from "worldly temptations" as abuse. I knew Roloff personally, and I was one of the first 3 boys at his City of Refuge in the Rio Grande Valley, back in January 1964.
 
#5 ·
I lived in Port Mansfield from 1950 until 1965, made many trips to and thru the land cut. He had a couple houses located back off of the intracoastal, when we would go by could see kids running around and on the edge fishing. They must have supplied themselves from the north. Either by vehicle down the surf or boat from Corpus or Riviera. To my knowledge as a kid growing up they never came into Port Mansfield.
 
#6 ·
Lester's Place

El First Draw is correct. I seem to recall one his places was right on the west edge of the ditch. It was about the same latitude as the "graveyard" (crash sight of a naval aircraft in the Laguna) - I just cannot recall if it was north or south of the graveyard. Been many years since I've fished there - I guess the old trainer plane is still there and not covered up.
 
#12 ·
As with most things we have two sides of the coin:

A.) He was a good man who gave troubled teens food, clothing, shelter and the discipline they were lacking.

B.) Or he was a crazy bible thumping nut job who "beat" kids.

A or B? I don't know probably somewhere in the middle I guess as is the case with most things in life. But I am assuming the kids had "issues" before going to these homes for troubled youth?

Were they there against their will? Prisoners? Was there internment court ordered? Interesting story, I would like to here first hand tales from someone that was actually there.
 
#13 · (Edited)
After doing a little internet research I came across another 2coolfishing thread about this very topic. It seems someone actually tried to swim across Baffin Bay to get away from the camp? Must have been pretty bad to try and actually swim across Baffin to get away?

http://2coolfishing.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1420514&page=2

And here is some more info about the Roloff's Lighthouse.

"In the Washington Post, Hanna Rosin reported on Roloff’s Lighthouse, where two boys spent more than ten hours digging in a dirt pit after being tied to a truck and dragged through brush. In Texas Monthly, Pamela Colloff wrote about Roloff’s Rebekah Home for Girls (the sister school to the Anchor Home), where one girl was beaten, chained in a room alone and forced to listen to Roloff sermons.

Tying two troubled kids to a truck and making them dig a hole after dragging them through some brush is a little over the top. But forcing anyone to listen to this guys sermons is just sadistic and a clear violation of this poor girls civil rights and constitutes "cruel and unusual punishment".
 
#17 ·
After doing a little internet research I came across another 2coolfishing thread about this very topic. It seems someone actually tried to swim across Baffin Bay to get away from the camp? Must have been pretty bad to try and actually swim across Baffin to get away?

Lester roloff

And here is some more info about the Roloff's Lighthouse.

"In the Washington Post, Hanna Rosin reported on Roloff’s Lighthouse, where two boys spent more than ten hours digging in a dirt pit after being tied to a truck and dragged through brush. In Texas Monthly, Pamela Colloff wrote about Roloff’s Rebekah Home for Girls (the sister school to the Anchor Home), where one girl was beaten, chained in a room alone and forced to listen to Roloff sermons.

Tying two troubled kids to a truck and making them dig a hole after dragging them through some brush is a little over the top. But forcing anyone to listen to this guys sermons is just sadistic and a clear violation of this poor girls civil rights and constitutes "cruel and unusual punishment".
I was one of the boys who stayed a couple of summers at the Lighthouse for Boys. None of that kind of **** went on back in 1964-1966, I can assure you. It was like a vacation, swimming, boating and fishing all the time. Plenty of Bible lessons of course.
 
#31 ·
Maybe, I was a teenager, I know I didn’t have a fishing license, but I heard it was okay with the state, but I never heard of limits but I don’t think we kept a trout under 18”. We also trapped coyotes for bount money.

I know my memories are so incredible, that this year I went on the hook for 40k so I could drive 6 hours by car and 1 by boat to recapture it every chance I get.....not working as well as I remember, but I do love the laguna madre
 
#34 ·
A long time ago, once upon a time the cabin right at the intercostal and the cut going into the graveyard(airplane wing) was the Lighthouse #9. There were several smaller Lighthouse cabins in the cut. I never seen anyone ever at the Lighthouse#9. My old fishing buddy, Paul Stallings and myself would camp out on the pier at night when we would run down there in my 16’ Joh boat/25hp and fish the graveyard. We would get to the pier right before dark. We never even ever went up to the cabin and nobody ever stopped to question us. Oh, the good ol’ days! Just saying…….cC
 
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