Port Lavaca: Calhoun County Museum

Port Lavaca: Calhoun County Museum

  • <p>Yellow brick building with sign saying Calhoun County Museum</p>
  • <p>Hamburg Line sailing ship Herschel, charted by A. Bremen Co. to carry immigrants to Indianola in 1845. (UTSA Special Collections Library)</p> <p>Drawing of a three-masted ship at full sail in choppy water</p>
  • <p>View of Indianola taken from the Bay, on the Royal Yard, on board the barque 'Texana,' Sept. 1860 (Library of Congress)</p> <p>Drawing of an aerial view of a harbor town at the edge of a vast plain. Two long piers and several masted ships and a steamboat can be seen in the water</p>
  • <p>Flintoff, Thomas. Indianola, Texas and Indianola with Lavaca Point in the Distance, 1852</p> <p>1852 painting of a small town on the water’s edge by Thomas Flintoff</p>
  • <p>Anton and Ottilie Fuchs Goeth (UTSA Special Collections Library)</p> <p>Portrait of Anton and Ottilie Fuchs Goeth</p>
  • <p>Indianola, before the storm of 1886. (Victoria Regional History Center, VC/UHV Library)</p> <p>One and two storey buildings on an unpaved street</p>
  • <p>East Main Street, Indianola after the 1886 hurricane. (Victoria Regional History Center, VC/UHV Library)</p> <p>People standing atop flattened buildings after a hurricane</p>
  • <p>Indianola after the 1886 hurricane. (Victoria Regional History Center, VC/UHV Library)</p> <p>People standing atop flattened buildings after a hurricane</p>

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Step into 19th century Indianola, where tens of thousands of German immigrants arrived in Texas, at the Calhoun County Museum. The museum’s exhibits include an eight-foot diorama of 19th century Indianola and the Fresnel lens from the 1852 Matagorda Lighthouse. Fifteen miles down Ocean Drive – passing several state historical markers – is Indianola, no longer a grand shipping and immigration port, but a small fishing village.

Calhoun County Museum

  • Hours: Tuesday – Wednesday, 10:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m., Thursday – Friday, 10:30 a.m. – 5 p.m., Saturday, 10 a.m. – 3 p.m.
  • Admission: None
  • 301 S. Ann, Port Lavaca, TX
  • 361-553-4689
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