Captain John York settled near Coleto Creek in 1846 and two years later joined land speculator Charles Eckhardt in plans for a trading post along their newly marked route for wagon travel from the port town of Indianola to San Antonio. Known as the Old Indianola Trail, it carried many German immigrants to new homes, some being persuaded to stay in Yorktown by the free ten acres of land offered to the first ten families. When the Aransas pass Railway was built in 1886, the town moved the mile south to its location and continued to grow with services such as general stores, hotels, cotton gins and blacksmith shops. Visit the 1871 Charles Eckhardt store, now one of the National Register buildings housing the Yorktown Historical Museum to view artifacts of the early families, the cattle drive era, Native American area history and a 1900s fire wagon.