Port Lavaca: Calhoun County Museum

Yellow brick building with sign saying Calhoun County Museum
Drawing of a three-masted ship at full sail in choppy water

Hamburg Line sailing ship Herschel, charted by A. Bremen Co. to carry immigrants to Indianola in 1845. (UTSA Special Collections Library)

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

View of Indianola taken from the Bay, on the Royal Yard, on board the barque 'Texana,' Sept. 1860 (Library of Congress)

1852 painting of a small town on the water’s edge by Thomas Flintoff

Flintoff, Thomas. Indianola, Texas and Indianola with Lavaca Point in the Distance, 1852

Portrait of Anton and Ottilie Fuchs Goeth

Anton and Ottilie Fuchs Goeth (UTSA Special Collections Library)

One and two storey buildings on an unpaved street

Indianola, before the storm of 1886. (Victoria Regional History Center, VC/UHV Library)

People standing atop flattened buildings after a hurricane

East Main Street, Indianola after the 1886 hurricane. (Victoria Regional History Center, VC/UHV Library)

People standing atop flattened buildings after a hurricane

Indianola after the 1886 hurricane. (Victoria Regional History Center, VC/UHV Library)

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
  • Visit Website
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