Emergency Crime Scene and Biohazard Cleanup in Port Isabel, TX

Port Isabel is a coastal city in southeastern Cameron County, Texas, where State Highway 100 meets the Laguna Madre, about sixteen miles northeast of Brownsville.

By 1850 Port Isabel was the second-largest town in the region, and by 1859 roughly $10 million worth of cotton was being exported through its port each year.

The Port Isabel Lighthouse was built in 1853 at a cost of $7,000 and first lit that year to guide ships through Brazos Santiago Pass; the 72-foot brick tower is now a Texas State Historic Site overlooking the Laguna Madre.

Port Isabel's lighthouse is the only lighthouse on the Texas coast open to the public, and more than 50,000 people visit it every year.

The lighthouse light was permanently discontinued in 1905, but in 2022 a newly installed lens was lit for the first time in 117 years, and no living person had ever seen its beacon shine before.

During the Civil War, both Union and Confederate forces used the lighthouse as a lookout, and a Union attack on May 30, 1863, destroyed or captured all the ships in Port Isabel's harbor.

The town was incorporated as Port Isabel on March 23, 1928, and the post office adopted the Port Isabel name in 1930.

The Queen Isabella Causeway connecting Port Isabel with South Padre Island was completed in February 1954 at a cost of $2.2 million, and a second Queen Isabella Causeway opened in September 1974.

The 2020 census counted 5,028 residents in Port Isabel, living in about 2,067 households, and roughly 60 percent of the city's homes are owner-occupied.

The waterfront district around the lighthouse is lined with specialty shops, restaurants, fishing charters, and eco-tours, and Port Isabel claims the longest lighted fishing pier in Texas.