Shipwrecks and sunken treasure comprise the dreams of myths and legends and the Texas Gulf coast has seen its share of both. Port Lavaca’s Calhoun County Museum is a great place to explore a bit of this Gulf coast history with exhibitions on LaSalle’s fated expedition to the New World (plenty of gold and shipwrecks), and the nearby town of Indianola, lost to a hurricane in 1886. The museum houses another relic of the area’s history – the remarkable Fresnel lens once used in the lighthouse on nearby Matagorda Island. The lens is a massive, four-sided array of prisms arranged in concentric circles around four convex lenses called “bulls-eyes”. The lens began serving the lantern room of the Matagorda Island lighthouse in 1873 and was actually the third lens to be installed in the lighthouse, remaining in service until 1977. You can participate in an up-close examination of this magical work of glass alongside other exhibits of local lore in the museum’s interpretive displays.

Watch the following videos to learn more about the Texas Historical Commission's excavation of the French ship La Belle and its artifacts. These videos were produced for inclusion in the La Salle Odyssey mobile tour.