Port Lavaca

Thomas McConnell, who had lost his Victoria home in the raid, bought the land for the new town from Isidro Benavides of De Leon's colony, and Lavaca was laid out by 1842 on a bluff fifteen to twenty feet above the bay. Its first great customer left early. When the town raised its docking fees in 1849, Charles Morgan moved his steamships to Powderhorn Bayou, partly because sandbars kept them from the wharves. Lavaca kept shipping anyway: cattle, hides, tallow and horns, cotton, wool, pecans, mustang grape wine, and Mexican copper, lead, silver and gold.

What the plaque says

Port Lavaca Founded in the aftermath of a Comanche raid on the nearby settlement of Linville, the town of Lavaca ("the cow") was established in 1840. The busiest port in the Matagorda Bay area and a major center for over-land export of cattle and other goods, Lavaca was an able successor to Linville. Lavaca was the first Calhoun County seat from 1846 to 1852, when Indianola assumed the role. The county seat was returned to Lavaca briefly during the Civil War, when the town withstood fire from Federal gunboats, then returned to Indianola. In 1886 Indianola was ravaged by a hurricane and Lavaca was again county seat. With railroad expansion in Texas, Lavaca moved away from cattle and turned to seafood. Called Port Lavaca from the late 1880s, the village boomed. Tourism and the population increased; several factories were opened; the town became a general law city in 1909. The Gulf Intracoastal Waterway was connected to Port Lavaca in 1913 and a seawall was completed in 1920. Shrimp and frozen seafood became major items for export. Natural gas and oil were discovered in 1934 and 1935. From the late 1940s major manufacturing began to contribute to Port Lavaca' s growth. Port Lavaca became a home rule chartered city in 1956, and a deep water port was located here in 1965. Port Lavaca celebrated 150 years of rich history in 1990. (1998) Incise on base: Erected by Calhoun County Historical Commission; George Fred Rhodes, Chairman

Where it stands

More markers nearby

• Half Moon Reef Lighthouse — steps away
• First Baptist Church of Port Lavaca — 1.0 mi
• Alsatian Immigration Through Lavaca Bay — 1.1 mi
• Civil War Bombardment of Port Lavaca — 1.3 mi