Port of Matamoros

The port saw its first sea fight before the Texas Revolution ended. On April 3, 1836, the Texas schooner Invincible, under Captain Jeremiah Brown, met the Mexican brig Montezuma near the mouth of the Rio Grande. Sailing circles around the slower brig, the Texans drove it aground, and its crew escaped ashore. The same day the Invincible captured the American merchant ship Pocket, which was carrying supplies for the Mexican army, and sent her to Galveston. After San Jacinto, the Brutus and Invincible were ordered to blockade Matamoros.

What the plaque says

Port of Matamoros The Port of Matamoros was established in 1824. Commercial cargo, shipped mainly from New Orleans and other U.S. ports, was unloaded at the port and transported overland to Matamoros, Reynosa, Camargo, Monterrey, and Mier. Mexico maintained a garrison and at least one Navy vessel at the port. This area was the site of numerous naval encounters between the U.S. and Mexico in 1836-37, during and after the Texas Revolution. Jurisdiction over the port was finally settled in 1846 when forces of U.S. General Zachary Taylor occupied the area at the outset of the Mexican War. (1994)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Port Isabel Lighthouse State Historic Site — steps away
  A 72-foot brick tower finished in 1852 for the Brazos Santiago shipping lane, dark from 1905 until a reproduction lens was lit in 2022, and the only Texas lighthouse open to the public.
• Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge — 14 mi
  A coastal refuge set up in 1946 for wintering redhead ducks, with 417 bird species recorded and, by the Fish and Wildlife Service's account, the largest ocelot population in the United States.
• Palo Alto Battlefield National Historical Park — 18 mi
  A flat coastal prairie north of Brownsville where Taylor's army and Arista's Army of the North fought the first major battle of the Mexican War on May 8, 1846, now interpreted from both sides.
• Stillman House Museum — 22 mi
  The 1850 Greek Revival house of Charles Stillman, who laid out Brownsville in 1848 beside the army's Fort Brown, and for a century the home of the Treviño family.

More markers nearby

• Port Isabel (Old Point Isabel) — steps away
• Point Isabel, C.S.A. — steps away
• Queen Isabel Inn — steps away
• Charles Champion — steps away