The History of Matagorda

Sacre Bleu! It’s Doctor Dirt, the Armadillo Archeologist, come to tell us about “one of the most important archaeological finds of the century”.

PBS created a NOVA.

Voyage of Doom (Original broadcast date: 11/23/99)
“Buried in mud beneath the shallow waters of Matagorda Bay in Texas, lay a glorious remnant of one of the most ill-fated voyages of the Age of Discovery. After years of searching the area, nautical archaeologists doing a magnetometer survey honed in on a promising site. And on the first day of diving, they were astounded to feel the distinctive outlines of a cannon, and sense the massive size of the wreck. When the cannon was hauled from the water, their hunch was confirmed: This ship, called La Belle, belonged to the 17th Century French explorer Robert Cavelier de La Salle. NOVA follows the building of a coffer dam and subsequent complete excavation of this remarkable site. Preserved were not only armaments and trade beads, but also a wealth of organic material—the wooden hull, leather shoes, and even a skeleton—that brings the voyage to life.”

You can read the Wiki Info.

“La Belle was one of Robert de La Salle's four ships when he explored the Gulf of Mexico with the ill-fated mission of starting a French colony at the mouth of the Mississippi River in 1685. La Belle was wrecked in present-day Matagorda Bay the following year, dooming La Salle's Texas colony to failure. For over three centuries the wreckage of La Belle lay forgotten until it was discovered by a team of state archaeologists in 1995. The discovery of La Salle's flagship was regarded as one of the most important archaeological finds of the century, and a major excavation was launched by the state of Texas that, over a period of about a year, recovered the entire shipwreck and over a million artifacts.”

There is a TON of reading on the subject.

http://www.thc.state.tx.us/lasalle/lasbelle.shtml

http://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/belle/

http://www.matagordaisland.com/

http://www.citybytheseamuseum.org/lasalle.html

La Salle Projects

Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum

Conservation Research Laboratory, Texas A&M University

Corpus Christi Museum of Science and History

Matagorda County Museum

Museum of the Coastal Bend

Smithsonian Magazine, La Salle article

And there is an excellent BOOK I’ve added to my Amazon wishlist, to be purchased as soon as a cheap used copy becomes available, should you wish to borrow…