Техас штатының құрған қаласы – Индианола тарихы

Ghost town in Calhoun County, Texas, United States

Indianola is a ghost town located on Matagorda Bay in Calhoun County, Texas, United States. The community, once the county seat of Calhoun County, is a part of the Victoria, Texas, Metropolitan Statistical Area. In 1875, the city had a population of 5,000, but on September 15 of that year, a powerful hurricane struck, killing between 150 and 300 and almost destroying the town. Indianola was rebuilt, only to be wiped out on August 19, 1886, by another intense hurricane followed by a fire. Indianola was designated a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1963, marker number 2642.

Prince Carl of Solms Braunfels, representing the Adelsverein, selected Indian Point in December 1844 as the port of entry for the Verein colonists from Germany. Prince Solms renamed the port Carlshafen in honor of himself, Count Carl of Castell Castell and Count Victor August of Leiningen Westerburg Alt Leiningen whom Solms claimed had been christened Carl. Prince Solms' choice of Carlshafen and its inadequate accommodations as a port of entry, as well as the isolated route to New Braunfels, was to keep the Germans from interacting with any Americans. In February 1845 Henry Francis Fisher conspired with Dr. F. Schubbert to coerce incoming immigrants to sign legal documents disassociating themselves from the Verein and to join Schubbert's colony in Milam County. In May 1846, John O. Meusebach received a letter from Count Castell informing him that 4,304 colonists were on their way to Texas. With no funds and no new settlements, the mass of emigrants was stalled at Carlshafen. Meusebach's requests to the Verein for more money, and his warnings at pending bankruptcy for the Verein, brought no results. As a last resort, Meusebach instructed D. H. Klaener to publish the plight in the German news media. Embarrassed by the publicity, the Verein established an inadequate $60,000 letter of credit. Meusebach had arranged with the Torrey Brothers for transporting the emigrants inland, but the United States hired the Torrey Brothers for use in the Mexican–American War. An epidemic of spinal meningitis broke out at Carlshafen and spread with the emigrants to New Braunfels and Fredericksburg. Samuel Addition White and William M. Cook founded Indian Point, later Indianola, in August 1846. This settlement developed along a corridor of beachfront for twenty three blocks. In 1849, the town changed its name from Indian Point to Indianola. In 1852, Calhoun County selected Indianola as its county seat. Some of these immigrants purchased land from Samuel White and established a settlement at Indian Point. The settlement's name was changed to Indianola in 1849 by combining the word Indian with ola, the Spanish word for "wave". The German immigrants continued to refer to the community as Carlshaven (Carl's Harbor) in honor of Prince Carl of Solms Braunfels.

From its founding in 1846, Indianola served as a major port, and before the 1875 storm was second only to Galveston, Texas as Texas' primary port. Charles Morgan established Indianola as a port of call for his gulf coast steamship line in 1849. The town was incorporated in 1853. In 1856, the port received cargoes of camels, part of the United States Camel Corps experiment to replace horses and mules as the primary pack animal in the southwestern parts of the country. During the American Civil War, Indianola was twice occupied by Union troops, in October 1862 and November 1863. During the second occupation, part of a Union infantry regiment while moving from Indianola to Matagorda Island drowned in Matagorda Bay. In 1869, the world's first mechanically refrigerated shipment of beef left Indianola for New Orleans. During World War II, the United States Army constructed an anti aircraft firing range along the Indianola shoreline to train gunners and the facility was used primarily by military personnel from Camp Hulen, located outside of Palacios.

Singer/songwriter Charlie Robison included a song titled "Indianola" on the 1998 album Life of the Party. The song begins from the perspective of a German immigrant approaching Indianola by sea and chronicling details of the narrator's family. The narrator and his cousin attempt to traverse the South to join the Union Army in the American Civil War, though they encounter Rebel resistance in Indianola. The next scene of the folk song briefly addresses the Wall Street Crash of 1929 in an indirect fashion, noting that little change occurred in their respective lives other than rust accumulating on wagon wheels. While this verse is brief in regards to words and time, it denotes a subtle and increasing disaffection in the American/Texan experience, adversely affected by seemingly non relevant incidences. The storyline then progresses to World War II, introducing an internal struggle between the call of duty of the United States and its armed conflict with Germany, the ancestral point of origin of many Americans. The overall sentiment of the song begins as a story of new promises followed by a series of fictional, though personally carved facts, that illustrate a common experience for the individualist. Texas exemplifies a spirit that is not only uniquely a Texan story but an American one, thrusting the individual against the external influence that would assume its right to assert its own values. Singer/songwriter Brian Burns included the song "Indianola" on his 2004 album Heavy Weather. The lyrics chronicle the full life cycle of Indianola, with verses from the points of view of a personified Matagorda Bay, an immigrant who helped build the city (Johann), a worker who came to help "bury the lost souls who perished that day" (Isaac), and finally the songwriter himself visiting the site (Brian). It is unclear whether the "Johann" mentioned in verse three refers to the Johann Dethardt, the first ship to bring settlers into the area, or Johann Swartz, the owner/builder of the first home erected in what would become Indianola. Alternative country singer/songwriter Scott Stutzman included a song titled "The Indianola Sway" on his 2016 single Halloween Sixteen (released under the alias Kasko Lunsford). The song likely takes place between the 1875 and 1886 hurricane.

What is now Indianola is served by the Calhoun County Independent School District.