Murdock’s Landing was a transhipment point for lumber (and probably other goods) going to the King or Kenedy Ranches. Ships would offload their lumber on the Gulf shore and float it ashore. Ox carts would then transport it across the island to Murdock’s Landing, where it would be loaded onto shallow draft barges and transported to docks in Baffin Bay. Warehouses at Murdocks Landing were also used to store salt that had been harvested from the Laguna Madre. One newspaper account of a hurricane striking the island in 1874 records that warehouses containing 25,000 bushels of salt were destroyed at Murdock’s Landing.