Category: History

  • Ancient Landscapes of South Texas Reception 12/12

    The Port Isabel Historical Museum will host a reception, screening and book signing for the award winning Ancient Landscapes of South Texas: Hiding in Plain Sight exhibit. Thursday, December 12 from 5:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. Ancient Landscapes of South Texas, Hiding in Plain Sight The Community Historical Archaeology Project with Schools [CHAPS] Program at…

  • Lighthouse Visitors Are From 15 States

    Reprinted from the Port Isabel Press, Jan. 1, 1954 Fifteen states were represented by visitors to the Lighthouse during the past week according to Jesse Ickes, State Park keeper in Port Isabel. Mr. Ickes has been keeping track of different states represented and they include Louisiana, Iowa, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska,…

  • Campbell’s Sea Chest To Have Formal Opening

    Campbell’s Sea Chest To Have Formal OpeningReprinted from the Port Isabel PressJanuary 29, 1954 Campbell’s Sea Chest will open in the new location opposite the Lighthouse Saturday, January 30. The Sea Chest is owned by Mr. and Mrs. Roland Campbell. Mr. and Mrs. Campbell came to Port Isabel six years ago and opened a “shell…

  • History of Highway 48 & Park Road 100

    Reprinted from the Port Isabel PressJanuary 1, 1954, p. 3 Most spectacular coastal highway in America may take shape within the next few years along the Gulf coast, providing another strong link between two friendly nations and a shortcut to Mexico City for most residents of the United States. The route would reach from Corpus…

  • Happy 100th Bobby Wells

    June 2nd, 2023, Bobby Wells will turn 100 years old! She and her family came from Rochester, Minnesota to Port Isabel (Brownsville) in September of 1930 to seek opportunities during the Great Depression. With over nine decades in Port Isabel, Bobby is truly a local Port Isabellian. Please wish Bobby a Happy Birthday using this…

  • Poem Written by Student about Lighthouse, 1950

    A 1951 description of the Port Isabel Lighthouse is illustrated in this 1940s: “For over 10 years before rehabilitation began last February, the building had been padlocked. Lightning had twice struck its iron roof; the metal railings had rusted and fallen away; wood work had rotted, bricks molded and crumbled, and the dizzily winding iron…

  • Late 1970s Downtown Port Isabel

    Downtown Port Isabel in the early-1980s. The 2nd Queen Isabella Causeway opened for traffic in September 1974. The traffic pattern through Port Isabel changed as a result of the new route. Garcia Street (the last street before crossing the causeway) was less traveled and Maxan Street, one block north of Highway 100 became more developed.…

  • Port Isabel in the Gold Rush Era

    Word of the discovery of gold in California comes late in January 1848, mere days before the Treaty of Guadalupe is signed officially ending the U.S. Mexican War. Point Isabel was profoundly affected by those two events. The arrival of General Zachary Taylor and some 4,500 troops in 1846 swelled the population of Point Isabel…

  • It Grew Epidemic

    This is a reprint from an 1875 Detroit Free Press article about an event that happened in Point Isabel. There are a couple of subtitles that draw the reader in. “The Curious Mania Which Swept Over a Texas Town.” And this one, “Sane People Organized to Subdue the Craze Created by a Demented Preacher Who…

  • Port Isabel Man, 120, Is Probably Oldest In Texas

    Inocencio Rosales, Known As ‘Don Chencho’ Helped Build Lighthouse; Recalls Early Valley History The following is an article reprinted from the Brownsville Herald (August 15, 1943) by Clarence LaRoche about Don Chencho. He was a remarkable individual that embodied the spirit of what it takes to pioneer on the south Texas coast. Texas was just…