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Indianola rediscovered
By CHARLYN FINN
The Texas Historical Commission recently conducted an investigation of the old port of Indianola near the west shore of Matagorda Bay at Powderhorn Lake.
The nine-day dive, beginning June 19, focused on targeted anomalies that appeared during a magnetometer and sonar survey in October 2006.
“It was a very successful venture,” said Steve Hoyt, Texas Historical Commission marine archeologist and manager of the project.
Hoyt and his crew were particularly interested in finding the remains of old steamboats that may have sunk in the vicinity during one of the 19th century hurricanes. “We found some lumps of coal we believe is from a steamboat because they used coal for fuel,” Hoyt said.
In an earlier venture the team located the remains of the steamboat Perseverance. The Perseverance is one of shipping magnate Charles Morgan’s steamships that caught fire while docked at Indianola on Oct. 3, 1856.
On the exploration where the Perseverance was found, Hoyt’s crew discovered a boiler. “We just uncovered enough to tell what it was,” he said. “Once we identified it we moved on to another location.”
The team found other things like a couple pieces of ceramic pottery, a 50-caliber bullet from World War II training days (two inches long and buried in the sediment) and what might have been a freight scale.
“The real clue to what it was, we were operating in zero visibility in muddy water, was the scale’s balance beam,” said Hoyt. “It is brass. We also found lots of bones from a meat packing plant.
“We located the courthouse. A granite block indicates where it was. We waded around looking for cornerstones of the courthouse building. We found lots of chunks of walls.”
The team found the site of the Indianola courthouse just offshore at the north end of Indianola. Although the remains now rest beneath four feet of water, the structure’s walls were so thick portions of them survived both devastating hurricanes.
THC staff, with the assistance of participating archeological stewards and other volunteers, investigated a number of locations, some showing signs of objects so deeply buried in sediment they could not be reached with the technology at hand.
Archeologists also uncovered the top ends of several pilings, which supported the piers of the port. These supports had broken off at ground level, most probably by the hurricanes of 1875 and 1886.
“This expedition was an important step in our ongoing survey of this historic site of the old Indianola port,” said Hoyt. “We are encouraged by the artifacts we’ve uncovered and look forward to future site visits, which will unearth even more of the secrets hidden by the sea.”
This is the most extensive collection of data ever collected on the archaeological remains of the Indianola port facilities and any shipwrecks in the vicinity, Hoyt said.
The expedition took place aboard the THC’s 27.5-foot research vessel the Anomaly II. The new boat was christened in April 2006 at the THC’s Annual Historic Preservation Conference in Galveston, replacing an older vessel purchased in 1973. The Anomaly II was acquired through a combined effort of state funding, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration grant though the Coastal Management Program of the General Land Office of Texas and a grant from the Ed Rachal Foundation of Corpus Christi. THC archaeological stewards participated in the dives aimed at identifying targeted anomalies, according to Hoyt, with the work including hot spots along one of three long wharves that extended over 2,000 feet into Matagorda Bay. Targeted areas were selected from well over a million magnetometer readings and 2,000 sonar files created as Anomaly II traveled some 233 miles back and forth over the survey area in October.
Hoyt, reported the new Anomaly II performed flawlessly on its first extended “tour of duty.”
Funding for the survey was made available through NOAA’s Office of Engineering and the GLO Coastal Management Program.
After some preliminary research at Indianola in 2005, funding was sought for the more extensive Indianola Survey Project. Using computer overlays of historical and modern maps, aerial photographs, and a remote-sensing survey by a private engineering firm, PBS&J, an approximate location of what could be the Perseverance had been determined along with some other significant anomalies in water depths averaging about 9 feet.
THC’s marine magnetometer detected iron objects on, or buried in the seafloor.
From the THC Archeology Division, Director Jim Bruseth and Field Archeologists Bill Pierson and Maureen Brown assisted on the survey, spending two to five days each on the project. Several volunteers, including marine stewards, provided additional support. With volunteer participation, the project team was able to have at least two people on the boat at all times; without them, the survey would not have been possible. In addition to volunteering time on the boat, Jack Jackson provided the free use of his house in Port O’Connor as the project headquarters and personnel quarters.
The old port of Indianola was originally founded in 1846 as Indian Point. It became firmly established as a deep-water port during the Mexican War and for 30 years its army depot supplied frontier forts in western Texas. In February 1849, the name was changed to Indianola. In a short Indianola achieved the rank of the second port of Texas. It became the chief port through which European and American immigrants flowed into western Texas.
Plagued by a continual shortage of water and ravaged by yellow fever and cholera, the little port finally took hold in the 1850s and started to grow rapidly. By this time, the Morgan Steamship Line (reportedly had nine steamships) ran a regular schedule between New Orleans, Galveston, and Indianola, with several ships arriving in Indianola each week, in addition to the numerous sailing vessels
At one time Indianola had a population of more than 5,000, at the peak of its prosperity when in 1875, the low-lying city, was nearly demolished by a hurricane.
Indianola was rebuilt on a smaller scale, but the 1886 hurricane almost obliterated Indianola and an accompanying fire finished the job. By 1887, the site was abandoned.
Though its life was quite brief (1844-1886), the now-forgotten Gulf Coast port of Indianola, played a pivotal role in the settlement of the Southwest.
According to Hoyt, initial investigations have revealed vestiges of the wharves, a substantial debris field, and two important shipwrecks, proving the site’s tremendous archaeological potential. Because of its unique place in Texas and U.S. maritime history, the former Queen City of the West merits further study.
Today there are quite a few vacation and permanent resident homes at Indianola as well as a few businesses but it is mostly under water. A large pink granite stone on the beach near the historical marker and cistern marks the closest point on land to the location of the Indianola Courthouse ruins, about 300 feet from the shoreline of Matagorda Bay.
Over the years shoreline erosion and subsidence have moved the shoreline landward.
The nine-day dive, beginning June 19, focused on targeted anomalies that appeared during a magnetometer and sonar survey in October 2006.
“It was a very successful venture,” said Steve Hoyt, Texas Historical Commission marine archeologist and manager of the project.
Hoyt and his crew were particularly interested in finding the remains of old steamboats that may have sunk in the vicinity during one of the 19th century hurricanes. “We found some lumps of coal we believe is from a steamboat because they used coal for fuel,” Hoyt said.
In an earlier venture the team located the remains of the steamboat Perseverance. The Perseverance is one of shipping magnate Charles Morgan’s steamships that caught fire while docked at Indianola on Oct. 3, 1856.
On the exploration where the Perseverance was found, Hoyt’s crew discovered a boiler. “We just uncovered enough to tell what it was,” he said. “Once we identified it we moved on to another location.”
The team found other things like a couple pieces of ceramic pottery, a 50-caliber bullet from World War II training days (two inches long and buried in the sediment) and what might have been a freight scale.
“The real clue to what it was, we were operating in zero visibility in muddy water, was the scale’s balance beam,” said Hoyt. “It is brass. We also found lots of bones from a meat packing plant.
“We located the courthouse. A granite block indicates where it was. We waded around looking for cornerstones of the courthouse building. We found lots of chunks of walls.”
The team found the site of the Indianola courthouse just offshore at the north end of Indianola. Although the remains now rest beneath four feet of water, the structure’s walls were so thick portions of them survived both devastating hurricanes.
THC staff, with the assistance of participating archeological stewards and other volunteers, investigated a number of locations, some showing signs of objects so deeply buried in sediment they could not be reached with the technology at hand.
Archeologists also uncovered the top ends of several pilings, which supported the piers of the port. These supports had broken off at ground level, most probably by the hurricanes of 1875 and 1886.
“This expedition was an important step in our ongoing survey of this historic site of the old Indianola port,” said Hoyt. “We are encouraged by the artifacts we’ve uncovered and look forward to future site visits, which will unearth even more of the secrets hidden by the sea.”
This is the most extensive collection of data ever collected on the archaeological remains of the Indianola port facilities and any shipwrecks in the vicinity, Hoyt said.
The expedition took place aboard the THC’s 27.5-foot research vessel the Anomaly II. The new boat was christened in April 2006 at the THC’s Annual Historic Preservation Conference in Galveston, replacing an older vessel purchased in 1973. The Anomaly II was acquired through a combined effort of state funding, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration grant though the Coastal Management Program of the General Land Office of Texas and a grant from the Ed Rachal Foundation of Corpus Christi. THC archaeological stewards participated in the dives aimed at identifying targeted anomalies, according to Hoyt, with the work including hot spots along one of three long wharves that extended over 2,000 feet into Matagorda Bay. Targeted areas were selected from well over a million magnetometer readings and 2,000 sonar files created as Anomaly II traveled some 233 miles back and forth over the survey area in October.
Hoyt, reported the new Anomaly II performed flawlessly on its first extended “tour of duty.”
Funding for the survey was made available through NOAA’s Office of Engineering and the GLO Coastal Management Program.
After some preliminary research at Indianola in 2005, funding was sought for the more extensive Indianola Survey Project. Using computer overlays of historical and modern maps, aerial photographs, and a remote-sensing survey by a private engineering firm, PBS&J, an approximate location of what could be the Perseverance had been determined along with some other significant anomalies in water depths averaging about 9 feet.
THC’s marine magnetometer detected iron objects on, or buried in the seafloor.
From the THC Archeology Division, Director Jim Bruseth and Field Archeologists Bill Pierson and Maureen Brown assisted on the survey, spending two to five days each on the project. Several volunteers, including marine stewards, provided additional support. With volunteer participation, the project team was able to have at least two people on the boat at all times; without them, the survey would not have been possible. In addition to volunteering time on the boat, Jack Jackson provided the free use of his house in Port O’Connor as the project headquarters and personnel quarters.
The old port of Indianola was originally founded in 1846 as Indian Point. It became firmly established as a deep-water port during the Mexican War and for 30 years its army depot supplied frontier forts in western Texas. In February 1849, the name was changed to Indianola. In a short Indianola achieved the rank of the second port of Texas. It became the chief port through which European and American immigrants flowed into western Texas.
Plagued by a continual shortage of water and ravaged by yellow fever and cholera, the little port finally took hold in the 1850s and started to grow rapidly. By this time, the Morgan Steamship Line (reportedly had nine steamships) ran a regular schedule between New Orleans, Galveston, and Indianola, with several ships arriving in Indianola each week, in addition to the numerous sailing vessels
At one time Indianola had a population of more than 5,000, at the peak of its prosperity when in 1875, the low-lying city, was nearly demolished by a hurricane.
Indianola was rebuilt on a smaller scale, but the 1886 hurricane almost obliterated Indianola and an accompanying fire finished the job. By 1887, the site was abandoned.
Though its life was quite brief (1844-1886), the now-forgotten Gulf Coast port of Indianola, played a pivotal role in the settlement of the Southwest.
According to Hoyt, initial investigations have revealed vestiges of the wharves, a substantial debris field, and two important shipwrecks, proving the site’s tremendous archaeological potential. Because of its unique place in Texas and U.S. maritime history, the former Queen City of the West merits further study.
Today there are quite a few vacation and permanent resident homes at Indianola as well as a few businesses but it is mostly under water. A large pink granite stone on the beach near the historical marker and cistern marks the closest point on land to the location of the Indianola Courthouse ruins, about 300 feet from the shoreline of Matagorda Bay.
Over the years shoreline erosion and subsidence have moved the shoreline landward.
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