Tarpon Inn

The wall of tarpon scales is the inn's own archive. Anglers sign and date a scale from their catch, and thousands now hang in the lobby. Franklin Roosevelt signed one on his 1937 Texas coast fishing trip, though he never stayed at the inn. Other guests have included the aviator Douglas Corrigan, the evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson, the actress Hedy Lamarr and the physicist Edward Teller. The Ellis family sold the inn after Hurricane Celia in 1970, a new owner repaired and reopened it in 1975, and it joined the National Register in 1979.

What the plaque says

Tarpon Inn In 1886 Frank Stephenson, a boat pilot and assistant Aransas lighthouse keeper, opened an inn at this site in an old barracks. He called the facility "Tarpon Inn" for the abundant trophy fish in nearby gulf waters. The Inn served as a landmark for sailors, and Port Aransas was known for a time as "Tarpon". In 1897 Mary Cotter and her son J.E. Bought the two story inn from Stephenson. After the building burned in 1900, two new structures were built in 1904. When the 1919 hurricane destroyed the main structure, the dining facility was used until it was sold in 1923 to James M. Ellis and his wife. Ellis soon rebuilt this inn to resemble the old barracks. He placed 20-foot poles in 16 feet of concrete with pilings at the corner of each room to reinforce it against future hurricanes. For a time guests could reach the inn only by boat. It became a tradition to sign and date a Tarpon scale and place it on the wall in the front room. Among the famous patrons was president Franklin D. Roosevelt who fished here in 1937. Duncan Hines spent his honeymoon here and recommended the food for the next 25 years. The inn has housed many area residents during storms and served as headquarters for the Red Cross, Salvation Army and Military units. (1979)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Port Aransas — 0.6 mi
  The fishing town at the north end of Mustang Island, reached by a free state ferry that crosses the ship channel day and night, with a university marine lab begun in a one-room shack.
• Mustang Island State Park — 13 mi
  More than five miles of Gulf beach on a barrier island named for wild horses, with beach camping on the sand and a twenty-mile paddling trail on the bay side.
• Fulton Mansion State Historic Site — 15 mi
  A French Second Empire house of 1874-77 on Aransas Bay, paid for with hides and tallow, with gas lights, central heat and hot running water no other house nearby had.
• USS Lexington Museum on the Bay — 20 mi
  An Essex-class carrier of 1943 moored off North Beach, the Blue Ghost that Tokyo Rose kept reporting sunk, and the Navy's training carrier for nearly three decades after.

More markers nearby

• Aransas Pass, C.S.A. — 0.3 mi
• World War II Coastal Defenses at the Aransas Pass — 0.4 mi
• Aransas Pass Light Station — 1.8 mi
• Terminal Railroad — 6.7 mi