Point Isabel Lighthouse
a.k.a. Port Isabel Lighthouse
Off TX 100, Port Isabel, TXBecause of increasing maritime traffic through Brazos Santiago Pass, near the mouth of the Rio Grande on the Gulf of Mexico, the U. S. Department of Treasury constructed there in 1852 an eighty-two-foot-high brick lighthouse tower topped with a stationary white light which could be seen for fifteen miles. The lighthouse operated with changing equipment and with intermittent interruptions until 1905, after which time it was abandoned for several years. During the American Civil War, the lighthouse served as an observation post for both Union and Confederate forces operating in the vicinity. After lying unused for most of the first half of the twentieth century, the Point Isabel Lighthouse was acquired in 1950 by the Texas State Park Board, subsequently was restored by that agency, and today stands both as a state historical park and as a functioning navigational aid.
The Point Isabel Lighthouse is one of the oldest functioning lighthouses on the Texas Gulf Coast. It played a significant part in military operations around the mouth of the Rio Grande during the Civil War and for over a century, with some interruptions, has served the region as an aid to seamen... )
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1976.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.