The Tarpon Inn is pictured in 1907. Historic photo courtesy of Mark Creighton
One of the Eight Wonders of Port Aransas is the Tarpon Inn, built in 1886, some 138 years ago. It was built with surplus lumber from Civil War barracks. The inn was first used to house workers who were building the south jetty.
The building became a hotel after the jetty was completed.
The hotel has survived and been rebuilt after a fire in 1900, hurricanes in 1916 and 1919, Hurricane Celia in 1970 and Hurricane Harvey in 2017. The inn also was rebuilt after other fires during its tenure.
The Tarpon Inn was listed on the National Register of Historic places in 1979 and as a Texas Historic Landmark.
Today it continues to function as a hotel and destination for vacations, wedding parties and more.
When folks enter the lobby they will find a human-size doll, called ‘Lady Mary,’ sitting in a chair.
More than 7,000 tarpon scales decorate some of the walls in the lobby. Tarpon scales are large, some as much as two-to-three inches across. Guests commemorated their catches by writing their names along with the size of their catch and the date caught. Vicky Palmer, front desk concierge, points out the oldest tarpon scale on display. She said most of the scales on the walls are from tarpon caught in the 1930’s. Staff photos by Vivian Carlson
The oldest scale on display came from a tarpon caught by Roy Milina in 1892.
Room 40 is known as one of the ‘haunted’ rooms. Guests have reported unexplained phenomena in the room as well as in rooms 36, 37 and the honeymoon suite. Some of the unexplained occurrences reported included lights flickering off and on, apparitions of a woman appearing and strange voices.
One of the most famous scales on display was signed by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt who fished in Port Aransas for tarpon in 1937. The scale is framed on one wall in the lobby.
Behind the guest check-in desk is a mounted tarpon on the wall. The 7-foot, 168-pound tarpon was caught on July 13, 1931, by Dr. Stirling E. Russ of San Antonio.
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