MAGNOLIA BEACH, TEXAS. Magnolia Beach is a natural beach fronting Lavaca Bay in central Calhoun County. A late-1800s project of Northern entrepreneurs to sell the land to settlers was a failure, but some camp cottages built for summer visitors proved a successful venture. The word Magnolia was probably added to the beach name for the Magnolia fig, which was grown commercially, preserved, and marketed in the area. In 1914 the resort community that had developed there reported a telephone connection, a general store, and eighty inhabitants. By 1925 the population had dwindled to fifteen; it remained at this level until the early 1930s, after which population figures were no longer available. In 1936 Magnolia Beach had two rows of dwellings, four other houses, and a community school; State Highway 316 led to the community, and a soil-surfaced road skirted the shoreline linking Magnolia Beach and the old Indianola site. The school was in still operation in 1939, when one teacher instructed four white students. In 1973 the site had several dwellings, most of which were newly built. By the late twentieth century and into the early twenty-first century the area had become a growing tourist destination for fishermen and was highly acclaimed for birdwatching. Magnolia Beach included a public beach project and fishing pier as well as beach homes and an RV park. A renovated marina was located nearby in Indianola. Part of the Victoria Metropolitan Statistical Area and within the Calhoun County Independent School District, Magnolia Beach reported a population estimate of 250 in 2008.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: John B. Hayes, A Survey and Proposed Plan of Reorganization of the Schools of Calhoun County, Texas (M.A. thesis, University of Texas, 1939).
