Indianola (Texas)

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Indianola, Texas (1875)
Map of Indian Point or Indianola, 1851
Indian Point or Indianola Harbor (Carlshafen), 1851

Indianola , Texas is a ghost town on Matagorda Bay and was formerly the county seat of Calhoun County . It is part of the Metropolitan Statistical Area Victoria . In 1875 the city had about 5000 inhabitants. On September 15 of that year, it was badly affected by a hurricane , killing between 150 and 300 residents and almost completely devastating the place. Indianola was rebuilt, but devastated again on August 19, 1886 by the Indianola hurricane and a subsequent fire.

Indianola has served as a major port from its inception in 1846 and was the second largest Texan port after Galveston before the 1875 storm . The city was constituted in 1853. In 1856 the port received camels that were part of the US Army Camel Corps . It was an experiment to replace horses and mules as the primary pack animals in the south-west of the country.

During the American Civil War Indianola was occupied twice by Northern troops, first in October 1862 and then in November 1863. In 1869 the world's first mechanically refrigerated cargo ship carrying beef left Indianola for New Orleans .

The destruction of Indianola served as an object lesson for many residents of Galveston, about 100 miles further on the Texan coast. Their calls for a permanent pier to protect their city went unheard and Galveston almost shared the fate of Indianola when the Galveston Hurricane (1900) hit the island directly in 1900 .

A railway line was planned to connect Indianola and its port with San Antonio ; after the two storms, however, investors were discouraged and abandoned the company. Instead, the railway line to Galveston was built. After the Galveston Hurricane, shipping traffic shifted inland to Houston over time .

After the 1886 hurricane, the county seat was relocated to Port Lavaca . Today there is almost nothing left of the original Indianola. Due to wind erosion , most of the place is now under water. A granite slab was attached to the shore at the nearest point to the former courthouse, which is now about 90 meters away in Matagorda Bay. There is also a statue of René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle .

During the Second World War, this was an anti- aircraft training facility that was mainly used by military personnel from Camp Hulen , which is outside of Palacios .

Indianola is now a small fishing settlement, which is, however, only a community-free area .

Web links

Commons : Indianola, Texas  - Collection of images, videos, and audio files

Coordinates: 28 ° 30 ′ 43 ″  N , 96 ° 29 ′ 15 ″  W.