Indianola, The Forgotten Gateway to Western Texas: A Proposed Plan of Archaeological Investigation, Preservation, and Outreach

Summary

The port of Indianola once served as the Gulf Coast's western terminus, providing the shortest overland routes to the Pacific Coast and access to countless European and American immigrants settling west Texas. By 1871, Indianola was second only to Galveston in the size and traffic of its port. Success was short lived, however. Two successive hurricanes in 1875 and 1886 destroyed the city, causing its widescale distruction and abandonment.  Despite a rich, important history, Indianola has not been the focus of extensive archaeological investigations and little is known outside the local area of the role it played in shaping a modern western Texas. This paper presents a plan to determine the archaeological scope of the site, preservation in the shallow waters of Matagorda Bay, and how Indianola's history and the study of underwater archaeology can be disseminated to a wider public audience.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Practicing Maritime Cultural Resource Management: Directives for Assessment, Active Conservation in situ, Partial Excavations, and Public Stewardship   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2016

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Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 715