Great Galveston hurricane busiest ports in the nation. With this prosperity came a sense of complacency. A quarter of a century earlier, the nearby town of Indianola on Matagorda Bay was undergoing its own boom and was second to Galveston among Texas port cities. Then in 1875, a powerful hurricane blew through, nearly destroying the town. Indianola was rebuilt, though a second hurricane in 1886 caused residents to simply give up and move elsewhere. Many Galveston residents took the destruction of Indianola as an object lesson on the threat posed by hurricanes. Galveston is built on a low, flat island, little more than
Texas State Highway 124 the current SH 87 to High Island, and then over the current SH 124 to Stowell, replacing a split of SH 125 that was designated on December 16, 1929. The route terminated in Stowell at SH 125 which then was made up of the present SH 65 between Stowell and Anahuac and the current SH 124 to Beaumont. The state highway department assumed control of the ferry service between Port Bolivar and Galveston in 1930 and resumed operations in 1934 after making extensive renovations extending SH 124 to US 75 and SH 6 in Galveston. On March 17, 1936, the