Indianola is a ghost town located on Matagorda Bay in Calhoun County, Texas, United States. The community, once the county seat of Calhoun County, is a part of the Victoria, Texas Metropolitan Statistical Area. In 1875, the city had a population of 5,000, but on September 15 of that year, a powerful hurricane struck, killing between 150 and 300 and almost entirely destroying the town. Indianola was rebuilt, only to be wiped out on August 19, 1886, by another intense hurricane, which was followed by a fire.
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History
Indianola was first known as Indian Point and served briefly as a military camp during the Texas Revolution. The land was then acquired by Samuel Addison White in 1842. White struck a deal with Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels, to allow German immigrants to disembark at Indian Point in December, 1844. William M. Cook acquired half-interest in Indian Point in August, 1845. By the beginning of 1846, more than 3000 German immigrants had arrived at Indian Point. Many were unable to travel to the German colonies established inland. These immigrants purchased land from Samuel White and established a settlement at Indian Point. The name of the settlement changed to Indianola in 1849 by combining the word "Indian" with "ola," the Spanish word for wave. The German immigrants continued to refer to the community as Karlshaven (Carl's Harbor) in honor of Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels.[1]
From its founding in 1846, Indianola served as a major port, and before the 1875 storm was second only to Galveston as Texas's primary port. The town incorporated in 1853. In 1856, the port received cargoes of camels, part of the US Army Camel Corps experiment to replace horses and mules as the primary pack animal in the southwestern parts of the country.
During the American Civil War, Indianola was twice occupied by Union troops, in October 1862 and November 1863. During the second occupation, part of a Union infantry regiment moving from Indianola to Matagorda Island drowned in Matagorda Bay.
In 1869, the world's first mechanically-refrigerated shipment of beef left Indianola for New Orleans, Louisiana.
The destruction of Indianola served as an object lesson for many residents of Galveston, 100 miles up the Texas coast. However, their calls for a seawall to protect that city went unheeded, and Galveston nearly shared Indianola's fate when the Galveston Hurricane of 1900 struck the island.
A railroad was intended to connect Indianola and its port to San Antonio, however after the two storms, discouraged investors abandoned the venture and later connected Galveston instead. After Galveston's hurricane, shipping traffic recentered over time to inland Houston.
After the 1886 storm, the county seat was moved to Port Lavaca. On October 4, 1887, the post office in Indianola is permanently closed and the town is declared "dead".[1] Today almost nothing remains of the original Indianola. Due to storm erosion, most of the site of the city is now under water. A granite marker was placed on the shore at the nearest point to the Indianola courthouse, now 300 feet (about 90 meters) away in Matagorda Bay. The site is also home to a statue of René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle.
During World War II, the U.S. Army constructed an anti-aircraft firing range along the Indianola shoreline to train gunners and the facility was used primarily by military personnel from Camp Hulen, located outside of Palacios.
Indianola is now the site of a small unincorporated fishing village.
Popular culture
In Elizabeth Hand's novel Aestival Tide, a reconstructed Indianola is featured as the lowermost level of the central ziggurat in the dome city of Araboth.
In the story Matagorda by author Louis L'Amour, much of the action took place in Indianola, Texas on the day it was destroyed by the 1875 hurricane. The courthouse, the site of which is now underwater out in the bay, was featured as the last refuge of the townspeople.
Singer/songwriter, Charlie Robison, included a song titled "Indianola" on the 1998 album "Life of the Party" that is a specific reference to Indianola, Texas. The song begins from the perspective of a German immigrant approaching Indianola by sea and chronicling details of the narrator's family. The narrator and his cousin attempt to traverse the South to join the Union Army in the American Civil War, though they encounter Rebel resistance in Indianola (state left undefined). The next scene of the folk song briefly addresses the stock market crash of 1929 in an indirect fashion, noting that little change occurred in their respective life other than rust accumulating on wagon wheels. While this verse is brief in regards to words and time, it denotes a subtle and increasing disaffection in the American/Texan experience, adversely affected by seemingly non-relevant incidences. The storyline then progresses to World War II, introducing an internal struggle between the call of duty of the United States of America and its armed conflict with Germany, the ancestral point of origin of many Americans. The overall sentiment of the song begins as a story of new promises followed by a series of fictional, though personally carved facts, that illustrate a common experience for the individualist. Texas exemplifies a spirit that is not only uniquely a Texan story, but an American one, thrusting the individual against the external influence that would assume its right to assert its own values. This, however, should not be confused with contemporary movements deviating from the spirit of this song.
Education
What is now Indianola is served by the Calhoun County Independent School District.
Also see
Further reading
- Bartlett, John Russell (1857). Personal Narrative of Explorations and Incidents in Texas, New Mexico. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co.. pp. 13–21. http://books.google.com/books?id=22kFAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA13. Retrieved 2009-07-15. "Should one of the contemplated railroads to the Pacific be extended west from San Antonio, with its terminus (in Indianola), Indianola will rank second only to New Orleans among the cities of the gulf in commerce and population."
- Malsch, Brownson (1995). Indianola: The Mother of Western Texas. State House Press. ISBN 1880510308.
- Greely, A. W. (November 1900). "Hurricanes On The Coast Of Texas". The National Geographic Magazine XI (11): 442–445. http://books.google.com/books?id=9g4OAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA443. Retrieved 2009-07-15. A description of the 1875 hurricane which destroyed Indianola
References
External links
- Indianola, Texas from the Handbook of Texas Online
- Indianola Railroad from the Handbook of Texas Online
- USGS GNIS: Indianola, Texas
- News accounts of 1875 storm at GenDisasters website
- Indianola Immigrant Database Project at Victoria Regional History Center website
- Indianola history at Indianola, TX website
Coordinates: 28°30′43″N 96°29′15″W / 28.51194°N 96.4875°W
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