Port O'Connor is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

and

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the count ...

(CDP) in

Calhoun County Calhoun County is the name of several counties in the United States of America named after U.S. Vice President John C. Calhoun: * Calhoun County, Alabama * Calhoun County, Arkansas * Calhoun County, Florida * Calhoun County, Georgia * Calhoun Cou ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

, United States, near the

Gulf A gulf is a large inlet from the ocean into the landmass, typically with a narrower opening than a bay, but that is not observable in all geographic areas so named. The term gulf was traditionally used for large highly-indented navigable bodies ...

coastline between

Galveston Galveston ( ) is a coastal resort city and port off the Southeast Texas coast on Galveston Island and Pelican Island in the U.S. state of Texas. The community of , with a population of 47,743 in 2010, is the county seat of surrounding Ga ...

and Corpus Christi. The CDP had a population of 1,253 at the 2010 census. It is part of the

Victoria, Texas Victoria is a small city in South Texas and county seat of Victoria County, Texas. The population was 65,534 as of the 2020 census. The three counties of the Victoria Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 111,163 as of the 2000 censu ...

metropolitan statistical area In the United States, a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) is a geographical region with a relatively high population density at its core and close economic ties throughout the area. Such regions are neither legally incorporated as a city or tow ...

History

Port O'Connor was laid out in the late 19th century as a fishing settlement called "Alligator Head". As it grew in popularity with both permanent residents and tourists, the community took on more municipal characteristics, earning the formal designation finally in 1909 as the town site of Port O'Connor. It was named after its main landowner at the time, Thomas M. O'Connor, who owned . Aside from local cattle raising and fishing, the town was also a producer of figs and citrus fruit. Its initial population growth spanned the years 1909 to 1919. Excursion trains ran on weekends to Port O'Connor, and an estimated 10,000 tourists came every summer. Port O'Connor has been struck by four hurricanes since it was initially settled. The 1919 Florida Keys hurricane brought the "good old days" to a halt, destroying the town. It rebuilt slowly, but the

1942 Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January 1 – WWII: The Declaration by United Nations is signed by China, the United Kingdom, the United States, the Soviet Union, and 22 other nations, in w ...

and

1945 1945 marked the end of World War II and the fall of Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan. It is also the only year in which Nuclear weapon, nuclear weapons Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, have been used in combat. Events Below, ...

hurricanes so close in time were hard to overcome. In 1961, Port O'Connor was in the midst of another growth boom due to the increase of military personnel on nearby

Matagorda Island Air Force Base Matagorda Island Air Force Base () is a closed military airfield on the north end of Matagorda Island, northeast of Corpus Christi, Texas. It was closed by the United States Air Force in 1975. History World War II The original airfield was bui ...

. That same year,

Hurricane Carla Hurricane Carla ranks as the most intense U.S. tropical cyclone landfall on the Hurricane Severity Index. It was the ninth most intense hurricane to make landfall in the U.S. The third named storm of the 1961 Atlantic hurricane season, Carla d ...

destroyed the town again, but times reflect its will to survive, fueled by tourism, commercial fisheries, and the petrochemical industry. Hurricane Harvey struck the town again in 2017.

Demographics

2020 census

As of the

2020 United States census The United States census of 2020 was the twenty-fourth decennial United States census. Census Day, the reference day used for the census, was April 1, 2020. Other than a pilot study during the 2000 census, this was the first U.S. census to of ...

, there were 954 people, 433 households, and 331 families residing in the CDP.

Education

Port O'Connor is served by the Calhoun County Independent School District. Due to its small population, the town has only one school, Port O'Connor Elementary School, which has the

dolphin A dolphin is an aquatic mammal within the infraorder Cetacea. Dolphin species belong to the families Delphinidae (the oceanic dolphins), Platanistidae (the Indian river dolphins), Iniidae (the New World river dolphins), Pontoporiidae (the ...

as its mascot. Port O'Connor Elementary School covers prekindergarten through grade five. Children are then bused to the nearby town of Seadrift or to Port Lavaca to finish their sixth- through 12th-grade educations. The secondary schools that serve Port O'Connor are Seadrift Middle School, Travis Middle School, and Calhoun High School.

References

External links

Brief History

Handbook of Texas Online article

Tourist Welcome Site, Chamber of Commerce

Live Cam Real Time Weather

Port O'Connor Local Information and Events

Port O'Connor Fishing Guides
* {{authority control Unincorporated communities in Texas Census-designated places in Calhoun County, Texas Victoria, Texas metropolitan area Populated coastal places in Texas