 Copano Bay was inhabited by the nomadic Aransas Indians, who constructed camps along the shore, 4,000 years ago.The Aransas people left the area approximately 700 years ago, and were replaced around 1400 CE by the Copane Indians, for whom the bay is named.The Copane were one of five groups making up the Karankawas, hunter-gatherers who occupied the mid-Texas coast.