Port of Matamoros
Port Isabel, Cameron County, Texas
Marker Inscription
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.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Established in 1824, the Port of Matamoros channeled goods shipped from New Orleans and other U.S. ports overland to the towns of northern Mexico, guarded by a Mexican garrison and naval vessel. During and after the Texas Revolution it saw repeated naval clashes between the U.S. and Mexico in 1836–37. Jurisdiction was only settled in 1846, when General Zachary Taylor's forces occupied the area at the opening of the Mexican War.
Why it matters
This borderland port sat at the flashpoint of U.S.-Mexico conflict, from the Texas Revolution through the outbreak of the Mexican-American War.
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Related people
- · Zachary Taylor
Related events
- · Mexican-American War
- · Texas Revolution
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Port Isabel (Old Point Isabel)
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About 1828 this bluff on the lower Rio Grande held Don Rafael Garcia's ranch, "El Fronton de Santa Ysabel," and by 1844 a Mexican customs station moved here after storms destroyed nearby coastal villages. Following the Mexican War, the U.S. established the Point Isabel post office in 1849, and goods landed here were freighted inland to Matamoros. In 1873 a railroad finally linked the port to Brownsville, serving until a deepwater channel to Brownsville replaced it in 1933.
These Palmetto Pilings
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These weathered pilings mark two separate military supply roads a generation apart. The cypress piles are remnants of a floating bridge Gen. Zachary Taylor threw across Boca Chica Inlet in 1846 during the Mexican-American War; the palmetto pilings are what remains of a railroad crossing begun by Gen. Francis Herron in 1864 and finished by Gen. Philip Sheridan in 1865 to move Union supplies at the close of the Civil War.
Old Point Isabel Lighthouse
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Raised by the federal government in 1852, this lighthouse guided the busy commerce of the Rio Grande's mouth, where steamboats and coastal traders converged. Its light went dark during the Civil War and flickered in and out of service for decades before being permanently extinguished in 1905, a small monument to the rise and decline of Gulf maritime trade.
Site of Fort Polk
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A Mexican ranching village once stood on this point, settled in the 1700s and abandoned before the United States declared war on Mexico in 1846. That March, General Zachary Taylor's forces occupied the site and built a supply depot to receive shipments from New Orleans, a six-sided earthwork named Fort Polk for the president. The fort was abandoned in 1850, but the settlement it drew grew into Port Isabel, with traces of the earthworks visible into the 1920s.