Worth Preserving

PORT ISABEL — Edward Meza has a reason to pleased.

As Port Isabel’s director for historical preservation, Meza witnessed the 10th anni-versary of the Museums of Port Isabel on Saturday.

The museums consist of the Port Isabel Historic Museum, the Treasures of the Gulf Museum and the Port Isabel Lighthouse. They are all located within walking distance of each other in Port Isabel’s historic district.

For Meza, who has been the director of museums across the state of Texas for nearly 20 years, watching the success of the Port Isabel Historic Museum has been a worth-while experience.

He said he moved to the city of Port Isabel from Laredo in 1997 to help run the mu-seum, which residents had been advocating for since the 1980s. Before the opening of the Port Isabel Historic Museum, Meza said those wanting to view or donate historical collections of the Laguna Madre area would have to travel to established museums in Brownsville or Harlingen.

Yet today, he said that 50,000 people visit the museums in Port Isabel each year view-ing exhibits that show the vast history and significance of the coastal area.

Meza said that although Port Isabel was incorporated into a city in 1928, its history began centuries before. He said Native Americans, including the Coahuiltecans and various other subgroups, inhabited the area, and recent excavations have revealed signs of human life dating back thousands of years.

“We’ve had examples of artifacts that were received of tribes that were here 5,000 years ago,” Meza said. “The area is old.”

Meza said the museum, which is owned by the city of Port Isabel, was funded by a grant from the Rio Grande Valley Empowerment Zone. He said it is located in the Char-les Champion Building, an old dry goods store and residence that was built in 1899 and had the city’s first ever telephone.

“It’s a unique building,” Meza said. “It’s one of the oldest buildings in Port Isabel.”

Over hundreds of years, Meza said the area has been subject to many early excur-sions, including the 1519 exploration by Spanish explorer Alonzo de Pineda and the settlement of Don José Escondón, who was sent by the king of Spain to the region in the middle of the 18th century.

With its close proximity to the Gulf of Mexico, Meza said the Laguna Madre area was a popular spot for people who wanted to fish, whether it was out of necessity, for fun or for competition. He said that up until the 1920s and 1930s, the fishing industry consisted of families who harvested fish as a staple in their diets. However, Meza said that over time, the fishing industry in Port Isabel changed as businesses and fishing tournaments replaced the traditional means of obtaining fish.

“The actual sport of fishing started in the 1930s,” Meza said. “We had people from all over come to fish here.”

In addition to being a favorite place for obtaining fish and shrimp, Meza said that the area was also had a significant military aspect. He said that at the time, the area had a 30-foot bluff jetting out into the Laguna Madre, making it a strategically ideal location for military units.

At one time, Meza said the city was home to Fort Polk, which was a supply garrison that was led by Gen. Zachary Taylor during the U.S.-Mexico War. Taylor would later become president.

Over the years, Meza said the city has underwent many name changes ranging from El Fronton de Santa Isabel in the 1820s to Point Isabel to its current name of Port Isabel in 1928.

He said, historically, the city served as a gateway the Rio Grande Valley and had a large impact on the interior of South Texas and North Mexico.

“It was here during the U.S.-Mexican War; it was here during the Civil War,” Meza said. “It has always served as the point of importance because of its location.”

Currently, Meza said that all three museums are open year-round and feature exhib-its ranging from the Spanish Exploration to the Texas Scow Sloop, a flat bottom boat that was created in Port Isabel and used for fishing at the turn of the century.

With the renovation of the Port Isabel Lighthouse in 2000, Meza said he witnessed a large increase in business within the area as visitors would come from across the world to see the building, which is the second smallest state park in Texas. He said the build-ing, which stands 80 feet tall and has 74 steps to go to the top museum, led ships through the Brazos Santiagos entry at the mouth of the Laguna Madre Bay from 1852 until 1905.

Today, Meza said that people still find remnants of the city’s past, and although any found artifacts legally belong to the state of Texas, people often keep them as souvenirs.

“After stormy weather, people go out, and they find still coins and every thing like that,” Meza said. “ It happens a lot.”