The Tarpon Era chronicles the activities and events of the town during the time period when catching tarpon was the main activity — the 1880s through the late 1950s.
Highlights of the Exhibit
- Changes in how people came to town (rail, cars and ferries)
- Where people stayed (The Tarpon Club and the Tarpon Inn)
- How tarpon were caught
- How a catch was preserved
- How Tarpon, Texas, became Ropesville, then Tarpon again — and then Port Aransas
- What happened in town during WWII
- How and when the tarpon numbers dropped to almost none
- What the town did to compensate for the loss of the tarpon
Artifacts on View
- FDR’s rod case given to Barney Farley
- A silver cream and sugar set from the Tarpon Club, which was on St. Joe Island
- Tarpon rods
- Tarpon Rodeo trophies
- A drying spool for linen line
- Tarpon fish print art by Dinah Bowman
- A Brundrett skin mount of the first place fish in the 1932 Tarpon Rodeo
The Ballad of Aimee McPherson
For a donation of $10, Dr. Bill Behrens will play guitar and sing three verses of the Ballad of Aimee McPherson. For $20, he will sing the entire ballad.
Aimee McPherson, who visited during the Tarpon Era, was was a Canadian Pentecostal evangelist and media celebrity in the 1920s and 1930s. She caught a tarpon here, and her scale is on the wall at the Tarpon Inn.
Aimee McPherson.
