Bead-Indianola Brown Woodgrain Stone Donut TB

I maintain records on my trackables. They have the goal to circulate more than five years and to be moved by at least 25 cachers. That is a target rate of five drops per year for five years, or a drop every 73 days. The average drop rate of my trackables in the US is 124 days, in Europe it is 71 days. As of 4-Apr-23 this trackable had survived for 5.8 years but it had been moved by only 17 cachers, for an average drop every 124 days. Please keep it moving, then drop it in a safe place!

No permission is needed to leave the U.S. While in the U.S., please drop it in a Premium Member only OR a rural cache near a busy trail or road. Do not place it in an urban cache or abandon it at a caching event where there is no security. Transport the bug in the original plastic bag for as long as the bag lasts; the bag keeps the trackable clean and dry, protects the number and prevents tangling with other items. Otherwise, take the trackable anywhere you wish.

This is one of a series of large beads obtained from different places and converted into travel bugs.  They are named for Texas towns with interesting names or histories.  Much of the text is from the online Handbook of Texas or texasescapes.com.

The port of Indianola, on Matagorda Bay in Calhoun County, was founded in 1846 as Indian Point.  In 1844 a stretch of beach near the point had been selected by Carl, Prince of Solms Braunfels, as the landing place for German immigrants bound for western Texas. The German landing area was briefly referred to as Karlshafen. One immigrant, Johann Schwartz, built the first house in the area in 1845. Indian Point became firmly established as a deep-water port during the Mexican War.  For thirty years its army depot supplied frontier forts in western Texas.  Anglo-American landowners in the area had the site surveyed in 1846 and began selling lots.  The post office was opened in September 1847, and stagecoach service to the interior began in January 1848.  

In 1849 the name of the town was changed to Indianola. The town grew rapidly, expanding three miles down the beach to Powderhorn Bayou, following its selection by Charles Morgan as the Matagorda Bay terminus for his New York-based steamship line.  Indianola was the eastern end of the southern Chihuahua Trail, the military road to San Antonio, Austin, and Chihuahua, Mexico, as well as the road to San Diego, the shortest overland route to the Pacific.  It became the chief port through which European and American immigrants flowed into western Texas.  In a short time, Indianola achieved the rank of the second port of Texas, after Galveston. 

In 1856 and 1857 two shiploads of camels were landed at Indianola. Under the direction of Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, the animals were used in one of the most extraordinary experiments in the history of the department, the use of camels in the transportation of military supplies in the southwestern United States. Indianola was bombarded by Union gunboats on October 1862, then occupied and looted.  The Union forces withdrew the following month but returned in November 1863, seized the city again, and remained until 1864.

The world's first shipment of mechanically refrigerated beef moved from Indianola to New Orleans on the Morgan steamship Agnes in July 1869, opening a new era in the transportation of perishable goods. Railroad service from Indianola to the interior began in 1871. With a population of more than 5,000, Indianola was at the peak of her prosperity when the 1875 hurricane struck. The town rebuilt on a smaller scale and then was almost obliterated by the hurricane and accompanying fire of August 20, 1886.  By 1887 the site had been abandoned.