1886 Hurricane at Sabine Pass
Sabine Pass, Jefferson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In October 1886, Sabine Pass was the second largest town in Jefferson County, boasting a new rail line and an optimistic outlook on continued growth as a major coastal port. On the afternoon of October 12, just two months after a hurricane had destroyed the Texas port of Indianola (200 mi. SW), a fierce storm ravaged the town of Sabine Pass. The hurricane's strength lay in its 100 mile-per-hour winds and the swiftly rising water that swept homes off their foundations and carried people and animals as far as 25 miles away. Eighty-six people, including entire families, were killed, and only two of 77 houses remained intact after the waters subsided. Stories of survival are documented as well, signifying the determination of residents to endure the storm. Rescue and cleanup efforts began promptly, with the citizens of Beaumont, Orange, Galveston and Houston providing boats, rescue teams and financial assistance. Special legislative action provided tax relief for the storm-ravaged area, exempting citizens from payment of state and county taxes in 1886. As one of several difficulties Sabine Pass faced in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the 1886 hurricane contributed significantly to the town's decline in the years to come. (2001)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
By October 1886, Sabine Pass was Jefferson County's second-largest town, buoyed by a new rail line and dreams of becoming a major Gulf port. On October 12—just two months after a hurricane had wiped out Indianola down the coast—100-mile-per-hour winds and a sudden storm surge swept homes off their foundations, carrying people and animals miles inland and killing eighty-six residents; only two of seventy-seven houses survived. Neighboring towns rushed boats and aid, and the legislature granted tax relief, but the disaster hastened the port's long decline.
Why it matters
The storm is a stark reminder of how vulnerable the 19th-century Gulf Coast was to hurricanes, and how a single night of weather could decide which Texas ports flourished and which faded.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related events
- · 1886 Sabine Pass Hurricane
- · 1886 Indianola Hurricane
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Beach Road
Sabine Pass, TX
Long before pavement, this Gulf Coast corridor linking Sabine Pass toward Galveston carried Native people, early settlers, traders, cattlemen, and Republic of Texas mail riders along the open shore. Confederate troops knew it as the "Road from Galveston," and in the 1920s Commissioner W.A. Vaughan rebuilt it with coastal shell, touching off a beachfront tourism boom. Folded into State Highway 87 in 1931, the route later aided World War II coastal defense before repeated hurricanes forced its closure in 1989.
The Kansas City Southern Railway in Port Arthur
Port Arthur, TX
When Arthur Stilwell dreamed up the shortest rail line from Kansas City to the Gulf in the 1890s, Port Arthur was born as its salt-water terminus, platted in 1895 before the tracks were even finished. A stucco-and-red-tile depot rose here in 1897, and excursion trains soon poured developers, investors, and would-be residents into the raw new town while a freshly dug canal linked it to Sabine Pass and the sea. For seven decades the depot anchored passenger life until long-distance service ended in 1968 and the building came down in 1969.
Arthur Edward Stilwell
Port Arthur, TX
Inspired by his railroad-building grandfather, Rochester-born Arthur Stilwell dreamed of a line linking the midwestern farm belt to the Gulf. In 1895 he laid out the town of Port Arthur on 4,000 acres and pushed the Kansas City, Pittsburg & Gulf Railroad south to reach it, then drew settlers with an experimental farm, water wells, a hotel, and a pleasure pier. By 1900 he had cut a canal to deep-water port facilities, giving the young town its outlet to the sea.
Vuylsteke House
Port Arthur, TX
Adrianus Vuylsteke was a Rotterdam-born immigrant who arrived in the United States in 1893 and helped plat the new oil-boom town of Port Arthur. A shipping agent who was appointed Dutch Vice-Consul and then Consul by royal decree of the Netherlands, he had this Colonial Revival house built in 1905 in about seventy-five days. Later moved, subdivided into apartments, and nearly lost to decay, the home was rescued and restored by the Port Arthur College Foundation in the 1980s.